Research Design
On March 14th, 2022, students, through American University’s Honors program, released a survey to all active, culturally-based clubs on campus. Ultimately pursuing data on the measurable impacts of diversity, equity and inclusion approaches within U.S. higher education, the following data aimed to extrapolate how AU students considered extracurricular, chosen communities to be integral to their college experience.
As with other U.S. institutions, the increasingly diverse student body at American University presented alternative questions regarding assimilation, acculturation and identity for students. Compiling survey data from 20 participants, the following pages aimed to illustrate the impact of culturally-based extracurricular clubs at American University.
The online, anonymous survey consisted of 12 comprehensive questions regarding participants' home environment, ethnic/cultural backgrounds and motivations for joining respective clubs on campus. We sincerely thank all members of the student body for their participation and hope the following project serves to inform, enlighten and foster more inclusive dialogue regarding AU’s community and culture.
Methodology
We conducted an online survey of student’s attitudes towards their participation and reasoning for joining cultural clubs. We defined cultural clubs in two ways. The first is through selecting the clubs that were categorized as “cultural clubs” through Engage, the platform where all AU students are able to learn and register for AU clubs. The second was through selecting those clubs that had the wording “cultural” in their descriptions. In constructing our survey, we consulted the Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies (MIRIRPS) national survey for integration in multicultural countries, and created likert scale, multiple-choice, and open-ended question/response suited to our goals.
Methodological Implications and Limitations
From a methodological standpoint, our survey and approach to the question of acculturation through cultural clubs, has shown how a mixed methods approach (analyzing open-ended responses with likert scale questions) has proven to be effective and should be used to conduct future research with more specific evidence, a bigger pool of respondents, and more questions that allow respondents to elaborate more broadly to multiple choice questions.
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As many researchers encounter when using surveying methods, some difficulties that arise are lack of a large number of respondents and perhaps respondents not fully understanding the question or intention of the question.
Demographics
This is the demographics of our survey sample size.
Respondent's Family Country of Origin
Orange represents the family country of Origin
demonstrated on the map.
"What is more important?"
We asked these questions to see what themes our respondents deemed the most important to them. This gives us an insight as to whether these values are similar to what the literature tells us is the acculturation process and their answers in the open-response question.
Club Involvement
Graph X (below) gives us information about the important reasons for wanting to join the club they were describing. Based on the graph, there is an obvious difference between those who wanted to seek out the club for “mak[ing]/meet[ing] new people and friends” and “learn more about my home culture/heritage.” More people responded with “very important” for social aspects of joining the club rather than wanting to learn more about culture/heritage. This could also be because the reasons given were limited, but when asked to further elaborate on other reasons(open ended response “Are there any additional reasons (not mentioned above) that made you decide to join the club?”)38% of the responses mentioned wanting to join for fostering a sense of community for their culture at AU, and 16% wrote about wanting to learn more and give back to a current humanitarian cause.
Based on the literature, this response seems to indicate that cultural clubs for students are used for integration, which by Berry is both wanting to absorb both the heritage and host culture.
Student's Attitudes Towards
Club Involvement
We asked these questions to see what themes our respondents deemed the most important to them. This gives us an insight as to whether these values are similar to what the literature tells us is the acculturation process and their answers in the open-response question.
