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A Qualitative Investigation Of White Students’ Perceptions Of Diversity, Kira Hudson Banks

Kira Hudson Banks, Ph.D.

Diversity is used in countless vision statements of institutions of higher learning. Yet, it is critical to examine how students understand the concept and conceptualize their personal involvement. Given that the current population of college students is predominantly White, it is important to examine this population. The current sample consisted of 151 self-identified White college students (61 men and 90 women) from a predominantly White, residential, liberal arts college. Responses to 2 open-ended questions—“In your own words, express how you would define the term diversity?” and “How do Whites fit into your definition of diversity?”—were analyzed in Atlas.ti 5.0 using …