| Most if not all universities are challenged to find ways to prepare their constituents to be more effective in serving diverse populations. Diversity trainings are often seen as a solution to this challenge. This paper examines the effectiveness of the Prejudice Reduction Workshop (PRW), developed by the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI). The PRW was a 7-8 hour workshop offered to students, faculty, staff, and community members at a California public university.;Participants were assessed before and after the PRW, with an expectation that notable positive changes in their responses from pre to post assessment would occur. This study compared the pre and post assessments to determine if positive change occurred. A follow-up assessment was administered later to determine if changes were maintained with the passage of time. The follow-up assessment also looked for differences in responses of individuals who participated in additional diversity experiences, e.g., attended diversity training or read a book about a culture other than their own, and those who had no additional diversity experiences.;Overall, as predicted, there were significant positive shifts in responses to each of the 10 survey items from pre to post assessment. As predicted there were negative shifts, i.e., shifts back toward pre-assessment responses, for most survey items on the follow-up assessment. However, those shifts were not statistically significant. Negative correlations were revealed between several of the survey items and subjects' participation in post workshop diversity initiatives. However, these correlations were not strong. Additionally, the research size (N=163) for the study, particularly the respondents to the follow-up assessment (N=55), was too small to make any broad generalizations.;At a minimum, based on the responses to the open-ended questions, the NCBI workshop provides an opportunity for individuals to have difficult dialogue in a safe environment. However, the goal of the work of organizations like NCBI is to affect lasting change in individuals and in our society. If positive shifts we see take place in individuals after participating in a workshop have dissipated over the course of a year, what does this say? This study appears to raise more questions than it answers. |
