Homosexuality And Diversity In Multicultural Education

From my grandmother’s influence to my participation in various research programs to my commitment to community service, I have formed my research interests through deep introspection into what I feel is the most important to me. I am interested in the interaction between oppressed minority groups and majority groups, specifically looking at gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. The interaction I am most interested in is how individuals in the majority of each of these groups form their perceptions about the minority and vice versa, looking primarily at the effects of a strong group identity and media portrayals. One of my goals for this research is through learning how perceptions are formed I can then determine the most effective …show more content…
During this program I worked with Dr. Lorraine Gutierrez on her existing project into the effects of multicultural education courses. I was able to form my own research questions and hypotheses based on the data that had been collected over a number of years, determine the appropriate analyses for my research questions, and add a new dimension of understanding to the data set that had not been considered before. The project I performed included looking at the differences in multicultural opinions before and after participation in one of the approved courses. I compared participants based on gender and sexuality in that I compared minority groups (homosexual, bisexual, female, or other) against the those in the majority (heterosexual, male). As well I aimed to determine if those with greater importance and centrality of identity based on their gender or sexuality were more apt to change after participating in a multicultural education course than those with low importance and centrality. My membership in the lab included several other tasks, such as data verification of incoming data, participating in weekly lab meetings with graduate students, while following an assigned schedule and completing work before deadlines. ANCOVA ~~~ This program helped me not only to refine my research and …show more content…
These courses include Psychology Research Methods, Psychological Statistics, and a psychology lab course that trains students in the use of SPSS, which filled gaps in my previous knowledge of the program, as well as other supplementary statistic courses. In order to further develop my research interests, I have supplemented my psychological research training with courses like Anthropology of Sex, Sex and Gender in the Past, and Men and Masculinities, a course where we analyzed how men are singularly affected by patriarchal systems, which is a largely ignored facet in Gender Studies. Through my research experiences and my course work I feel that I have gained a solid foundation for the future research that I hope to pursue which in parts fall under the umbrella of Women and Gender