The annual assessment of RAPP's impact through pre- and post-test analysis is completed (in first draft)!
Curriculum and Measurement
The
flagship program of the Racial Awareness Program is the RAPP 9-month
experiential social justice education program.
The 2012-13 class of RAPP was the 28th group of University of Cincinnati
students to participate in this program.
As such, they are known as RAPP XXVIII.
The
curricular objectives for the RAPP 9-month program were established in Fall
2008 and updated in Fall 2012 to be:
- Develop
relationships with new people
- Develop
ability to communicate across difference for learning and understanding
- Recognize
that oppression is systemic, pervasive, interlocking, and imbedded
- Recognize
own agency
The
RAPP XXVIII experience was facilitated by the RAPP Program Coordinator Rebecca
Lehman and RAPP Student Worker Brice Mickey.
Following the set of session goals that constitute the RAPP Curriculum,
these facilitators developed 14 sessions and three overnight retreats utilizing
social justice education resources and intergroup dialogue practices. Three student volunteers also helped
facilitate the RAPP XXVIII group process as peer educators and mentors – Farooq
Alkhateeb, Tianshu Lu, and Kristen Myers-Young – having previously participated
in the RAPP 9-month program and received pre-service and on-going training in
social justice peer education.
The
pre- and post-test instrument was developed and first implemented in Fall 2009
and has been updated annually by the facilitation team to reflect participant
feedback and updates in the curriculum as well as issues found in assessment. RAPP XXVIII is the fourth group on which it has
been administered. The pre-test was
administered at the second meeting of the group and the post-test was
administered at the twelfth (penultimate).
General Results
Twenty-eight
students committed to RAPP XXVIII and 24of these graduated through the program
in April 2012 (85.7% retention). Twenty-one
of these graduates completed both the pre- and post-test (87.5%).
All RAPP
members committed to participating in all RAPP XXVIII meetings and retreats
(each meeting is one session, each retreat has three sessions) and completing brief activities between sessions (e.g. "write the meeting dates in your calendar," "record a page of reflection in your journal"); RAPP XXVIII had
a total of 22 sessions and 13 between sessions activities.
The overall
average for participation was attendance at 89.9% of sessions. Previous analysis demonstrated that
participating in 80% or more of sessions is critical to achieving the learning
objectives; 21 participants (87.5%) of the group attended 80-100% of the
sessions.
Key Findings
By
section, the key highlights are:
- Identities – Participants reported an
overall increase in racial and gender identity awareness. When divided into dominant and subordinated
group identities, the greatest reported change was among racial identity
awareness of White/Caucasian students.
- Comfort in Discussion – Participants reported an
increase in the number of people in the group with whom they report being
comfortable discussing difficult topics.
Participants also reported any increase in their overall comfort
discussing racism, sexism, cissexism, and heterosexism. RAPP participation enhanced participants
general awareness and knowledge related to oppression and their skill in having
conversations around it.
- Key Words – Participants demonstrated an
increased ability to define and quality of definition of key words related to social
justice education (oppression, privilege, ally, social construct, and
intersectionality). The greatest demonstrated
increase was for social construct.
- Challenging Others – Participants reported being
more likely to verbally express disagreement with statements they found
offensive made by people across all relationships surveyed. The biggest reported increase was with
expressing disagreement with co-workers and strangers.
- Communicating – Participants reported an
increase in use of cross-cultural communication strategies with all
relationships surveyed. The greatest
reported increase was in acknowledging multiple perspectives.
- Identifying Racism – Participants were slightly more
likely to identify the connection with racism in institutional and social
levels.
- Feedback
– In response to open-ended questions on the post-test, participants provided
feedback on the overall RAPP XXVIII experience.
o
Learnings/Enhancements: All participants were able to describe something
they learned or enhanced through their participation. Most frequently noted were learning in line
with the “each one teach one” philosophy, understanding privilege, recognizing
oppression as complex, and communication skills.
o
Desired
changes: Participants provided a variety
of suggestions for improving the RAPP 9-month process, most frequently noted
were the meeting timeframe, providing social activities between sessions, and
increasing the use of educational simulations in sessions.
o
Sense
of connection with UC: Four-fifths
responded with an unequivocal yes when asked whether RAPP impacted their sense
of connection with UC; all respondents described ways in which RAPP positively
impacted their UC experience.
For
full reporting of findings, please contact RAPP Program Coordinator Rebecca Lehman for the full report. Included at the end are important-to-note
limitations to the data and analysis.
.JPG)
