Multiculturalism and Digital Signage at the Modern University

The notion of “us and them” becomes one of “us and we”. It is not enough to simply recognize the specifics unique to different groups – students must be encouraged to respect those differences and contributions as well.

Gordon Allport’s Contact Hypothesis (or Intergroup Contact Theory) says that interpersonal contact is one of the most effective ways to reduce tensions between groups in conflict, or to prevent a conflict from arising, provided certain criteria are followed:

Equal Status – encourage the groups to find their similarities, and minimize differences
Common Goals – the groups must work together toward a common goal, sharing knowledge, resources and skills
Intergroup Cooperation – groups work together to achieve their common goal, not in a competitive environment
Support from Authority – the contact is overseen by a fair-minded, neutral, supportive authority figure or team that discourages ingroup vs. outgroup comparisons
Personal Interaction – individuals in each group must interact on a personal level with individuals from the other group(s), learning about one another and forming friendships

Your university is hardly a conflict zone, but these principle are still useful when attempting to reduce prejudice around campus. Creating events that require different groups to work together towards a certain goal, with a reward for everyone if the goal is achieved (a competition not with each other, but with the rules of the activity), is one way to go about this. For example, you might have members of the French Club and Lebanese Club form a single team for a campus cleanup week (picking up litter) or other activity that betters the campus overall. Or something with the larger community your university is part of – a food or blood drive, planting trees, etc.

You can use your digital signage to promote these events, and display current progress toward the goal, so everyone knows how close they are to “winning”. This may also encourage other disparate groups to suggest similar activities and opportunities.

Again, putting up links to websites that encourage this sort of thinking is a good use of your screens. Things like Harvard’s Project Implicit encourage students to examine their own innate prejudices. And there are many web resources out there that you can easily adapt to your university’s situation: the University of Berkeley has a page for their Greater Good in Action program with strategies for reducing prejudice, and the now-retired webpage for the Online Training Program on Intractable Conflict (OTPIC) at the University of Colorado has a list on links to Prejudice Reduction Programs, just to name two.

Empowerment in School Culture and Structure

All this goes way beyond the classroom – it extends to the entire school as a whole. The faculty and staff should be as diverse as the student body, and the ways things are done on campus need to be as equitable as possible.

The word “empowering” is used a lot these days, but that’s part of the function of an institution of higher learning – to empower students to explore and participate in their world, so they can go on to be the leaders of tomorrow when they leave school. While they are earning a degree, the university is their world, so it needs to make sure that they all have opportunities to achieve whatever they set their minds to.

Encouraging diversity in social and group activities is one way to show that the school as a whole supports the diverse student body. A simple but effective way to do this is to tailor the images you use when promoting sport events, theatrical productions and the like on digital signs. Show a mix of ethnicities – not just any for diversity’s sake, but the actual ethnicities of people enrolled at your school. Or use real students in your pictures and videos. You can even get more students involved by getting photography students to take the pictures, or the AV Club to script and shoot the videos, all of which then go up on your digital displays and website.

For the arts, encouraging student to use their own cultural backgrounds, or the backgrounds of other students, can also foster a sense of empowerment. Instead of another production of Arsenic and Old Lace or a performance of a Sousa piece, why not consider Fences or A Raisin in the Sun, or some work by Levi Celerio or Alberto Ginastera? Get the students involved – let them have a say on what gets performed next. Have an online voting webpage tied into your digital signage system, so they can see the voting as it occurs in real time, encouraging everyone to participate.

If you have wayfinding and directories on interactive touchscreens and kiosks, make sure the main language groups your students use (besides English) are included. Not just for them, but for their parents, potential donors and other visitors to your campus. If you have a lot of students from Filipino backgrounds, then chances are that there will be some Tagolog speakers on your campus, visiting or evaluating your university. Having digital signage messages in different languages also helps create a sense of welcome and inclusiveness that will be appreciated by everyone.

And don’t forget your teachers. They also need to know that their voices matter, so they will naturally pass that thinking along to their students. Together, they have scores, even centuries of years of experience that you can tap into to create a university that is not only right for today, but that succeeds in the ever-changing future as well.

Each university is different, and each changes from year to year. To create a truly multicultural learning environment, you must always be researching, learning, adapting and adjusting. You already have your digital signage system that students and staff use for information on a daily basis, so think about ways you can add in elements that celebrate and support your diverse and dynamic student body.

Futher Reading:

There are many studies and scholarly works out there discussing these issues – Empowering Teachers As Leaders by Paul M. Terry (University of Memphis), The Influence of Multicultural Educational Practices on Student Outcomes and Intergroup Relations by Sabrina Zirkel (Mills College), Defining an empowering school culture (ESC): Teacher perceptions by Betül Balkar (University of Gaziantep, Turkey) and Patty Bode’s list of multicultural education links on education.com are just a few.