Research Shows Culturally Responsive Education Can Boost Resilience to Discrimination

People of color make up the majority of students in public secondary schools in the U.S. However, those students report worse mental health outcomes than their white counterparts. University of Minnesota researchers are investigating if discrimination in schools contributes to these negative mental and emotional outcomes.

The researchers looked into the need to increase student resilience when faced with race-related stressors, including ethnic and racial discrimination. School settings may be a place where students of color are able to receive positive messages about their ethnic and racial groups to counteract negative discriminatory messages.

A new study, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, followed two groups of students aged 11 to 18: Black students over a 14-day period, and Asian American and Latino students over a 30-day period.

The researchers found:

• 43% of Black students experienced at least one instance of ethnic and racial discrimination, compared to 42% of Latino and Asian American students.
• Ethnic and racial discrimination was associated with greater negative emotional outcomes among Black, Latino and Asian American students.
• School-based lessons acknowledging ethnically and racially underrepresented cultural heritage, traditions and holidays bolstered resilience among students of color and are opportunities to address the negative psychological impacts of discrimination.

“Because school contexts are more likely to include students from diverse backgrounds, we need more conversations about ethnicity and race so students and teachers learn how to interact with others, appreciate differences and develop bridges between each other,” said Juan Del Toro, an assistant professor in the U of M College of Liberal Arts and lead author on the study.

Future research will explore peer-to-peer dynamics and how they contribute to resilience following instances of ethnic and racial discrimination. The researchers will also interrogate how school-based and race-related policies may be detrimental to both students of color and white students.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and Spencer Foundation.