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The purpose of this study was to examine first-year change in appreciative attitudes toward Muslims by non-Muslim students. To this end, we longitudinally assessed 6229 undergraduate students at the beginning and end of their first year in college. We performed a hierarchical linear modeling analysis and found evidence that Muslim appreciation can change as a result of exposure to and participation in the first year in college, specifically through provocative encounters that are adequately supported by administrative practices designed for helping students interact productively. Implications are discussed.

Evangelical Christian college students navigate campus buoyed by Christian privilege but may encounter silencing or othering tied to their religious beliefs, a feeling of incompatibility with their campus climate, and conflations of their religious and political beliefs that are inaccurate and discouraging. Unsupportive campus climates can discourage evangelical students from having productive exchanges across difference and deepening their own worldview commitments, which is concerning due to their general lack of interfaith participation that challenges stereotypes and unnuanced assumptions. This study explores how evangelical Christians perceive their campus climates and whether those perceptions are different based on other social identity intersections with gender, race, sexuality, and political affiliation. In addition to individual characteristics, how the campus environment and various curricular and co-curricular experiences moderate evangelical students’ perceptions of the worldview climate is examined. A sample of 1235 evangelical college students was examined via means, standard deviations, and ranges for six campus climate measures, one-way ANOVAs to examine whether those measures differed by different identity dimensions, and then multilevel modeling to better understand the role of campus experiences in evangelicals’ perceptions of their campus climate. Evangelical students’ campus climate perceptions were generally positive; more provocative encounters were reported by women than men and evangelical Asian students indicated more divisiveness, more insensitivity, and less space for support than their peers. Political affiliation also revealed several significant differences in perceived campus climate. Interfaith engagement through pre-college activities, formal and informal activities, and friendships were connected to perceptions of campus climate, with those reporting more engagement being more likely to have productive encounters across difference and to report insensitivity or divisiveness. Religious affiliation was the most significant institutional characteristic. This study illuminates how collegiate experiences and campus environments exacerbate or attenuate evangelical Christian students’ perceptions of the campus climate, and the results indicate that effective teaching practices where true interfaith experiences happen and that create inclusive space for evangelical students in the classroom are key to fostering development, especially in light of the social status ambiguity evangelical college students may be experiencing during their college years.

BackgroundOne of the most influential factors shaping college students’ prosocial development—the development of attitudes and behaviors that involve positive engagement within one's community and larger society—is the peer group. Friends have an especially important influence on students’ learning and development because of the time and emotional investment friendship involves. While ample research documents the association between college students’ friendships across racial differences and the development of prosocial attitudes and behaviors, the question of whether friendships across other social boundaries may also do so remains.PurposeThis study was guided by the theory of civic friendship, which posits that friendships that cross social boundaries (e.g., religion, race) can foster positive attitudes toward people of other social identity groups and a commitment to justice because of the solidarity and attention to injustice that develop within such relationships. We focused on friendships across the social boundary of worldview identity. More inclusive of secular and spiritual students than “religious identity,” “worldview identity” is defined as a student's guiding life philosophy based on religious, spiritual, and/or non-religious perspective(s). Specifically, the purpose of our study was to examine the relationship between the number of interworldview friendships in the first year on campus and one particular prosocial attitude, pluralism orientation, which reflects acceptance of and active engagement with worldview diversity.ParticipantsWe utilized Time 1 and Time 2 data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), a national, longitudinal dataset comprised of 7,194 first-year students of diverse racial and worldview identities at 122 U.S. institutions.Research DesignWe ran a series of blocked multilevel regression models to examine the relationship between the number of interworldview friendships and pluralism orientation at Time 2, controlling for four domains of variables shown in prior literature to also be associated with pluralism orientation.ResultsResults revealed that, holding constant other predictors, the number of interworldview friendships in the first year on campus is positively associated with pluralism orientation.ConclusionsOur results provide additional support for the particularly powerful relationship between friendship across social differences and students’ prosocial development. It is essential, therefore, that colleges and universities create conditions that will help students develop and solidify these vital relationships early in their collegiate journey. By supporting interworldview friendships among their students, colleges and universities are contributing to the creation of a more just and egalitarian society and a stronger democracy.

For queer-spectrum students, college and university campuses are often sites of marginalization, discrimination, and/or harassment. Though such experiences are not singularly attributable to worldview, research highlights the role that religious identity plays in shaping individuals' perspectives on lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people. Absent from current scholarship, however, is insight into the ways in which interfaith experiences may influence those attitudes. As such, this study uses data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) to explore how formal and informal campus interfaith experiences and provocative encounters with worldview diversity relate to heterosexual students' appreciative attitudes toward LGB people. In addition to reinforcing the importance of friendships with individuals of different sexual orientations, our findings underscore the roles that campus space for support and spiritual expression, provocative encounters with worldview diversity, and interfaith behaviors play in fostering heterosexual students' appreciative attitudes toward LGB people.

The purpose of this article is to introduce the theory of interfaith learning and development to the scholarly community. Building on the work of others, the authors adopted an interdisciplinary, e...

The study of diversity climates is as complicated as the study of diversity itself. Despite the call for more sophisticated and multi-dimensional approaches to the study of diversity climates, few empirical efforts have been designed to do so, as the literature remains replete with work bifurcating and labeling diversity climates as positive or negative, productive or unproductive. Results from this study provide empirical support that worldview climate is indeed multi-dimensional, comprised of three distinctive, yet overlapping dimensions: productive, unproductive, and provocative. Implications for both scholars and practitioners, as well as directions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the institutional conditions and educational practices associated with the development of first-year students’ capacities to script their own religious, spi...

This study draws on an original national and longitudinal survey to examine patterns and predictors of change in religious and spiritual self-perceptions among over seven thousand college students in their first year on campus. The chapter identifies the personal characteristics, institutional contexts, and collegiate experiences that shaped students’ perceptions of themselves in relation to religion and spirituality. Twenty-eight percent of first-year students changed their self-perception in the first year of college; a switch to “spiritual but not religious” was the most common type of change. The study illuminates parallel reactions to religious and spiritual descriptors among certain groups. For example, both atheists and evangelical Christians were less likely than mainline Protestants to adopt the “religious but not spiritual” and “spiritual but not religious” labels. Lived experiences in the first year of college made a notable impact on students’ self-perceptions of spirituality.

Higher education carries the potential to transform the troubled state of affairs—from political discord to social injustice—evident in U.S. society. Benefits to the public good can be realized to ...

Using data from a survey administered at 61 institutions from 2011 to 2015, we examined how campus support structures for sexual minority students (e.g., a recognized LGBTQ student organization) in...

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare domestic and international students’ experiences of the campus worldview climate. Background: Internationalization efforts have continued to increase and more institutions are codifying internationalization into their mission statements or strategic plans. However, most international students are coming to the United States from countries that do not share a Christian-based worldview and most campuses are already underprepared for their students to engage across worldviews. Methodology: To explore the experiences of international students with the campus worldview climate, we used data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) to examine differences between domestic and international students with regard to campus worldview climate perceptions, engagement in formal and informal interfaith opportunities, and changes in pluralism orientation during the first year of college. Contribution: This study advances our understanding of how international students perceive their campus worldview climates and how they engage in cross-worldview interactions. We offer these findings in hopes of providing an empirical roadmap for improving international students’ experiences with the worldview climate on campus, especially as internationalization strategies continue to grow and diversify our student populations. Findings: We found that international students do find their campuses less welcoming than their domestic peers. Additionally, international students reported engaging more often in formal cross-worldview interactions than their domestic peers. Recommendations for Practitioners: In light of these findings, we suggest three interfaith initiatives campuses can sponsor to better support their international students: 1) find a physical space for a multi-faith center and provide dedicated staff to support interfaith initiatives, 2) help faculty innovate their practice and the spaces they hold in the classroom to foster environments more inclusive of diverse worldviews, and 3) engage student affairs staff in reflection about their own worldviews and train them to create space for cross-worldview engagement among their students. Recommendation for Researchers: Our findings suggest that international students’ experiences of worldview climate differ from their domestic peers. Researchers should continue to explore worldview as a relevant component of the cross-cultural experience and design research that considers these divergent experiences. Impact on Society: Helping our students engage with diverse worldviews is imperative as part of higher education’s contribution to creating democratic societies across the globe. The results of this study point to ways administrators and campus leaders can align internationalization strategies with effective interfaith and worldview diversity practice. Future Research: Additional research efforts should focus on identifying components of the campus worldview climate international students are more likely to experience than their domestic peers. Also, researchers should consider how international students are exhibiting growth on outcomes like pluralism orientation in comparison to their domestic peers and how cross-worldview interactions affect this development.

In the United States, some would argue the recent political climate has been characterized by great division and animosity. The realities individuals are seeing across the United States are also ta...

The purpose of this study was to examine appreciative attitudes toward Jews – a historically marginalized and targeted worldview identity group in the context of American higher education – among non-Jewish undergraduates. Drawing from a sample of 13,489 students across 52 institutions and using a multilevel modeling approach, we found that appreciative attitudes toward Jews varied by students’ perceptions of structural, psychological and behavioral climate dimensions related to worldview and by students’ identification patterns, including worldview. Of specific interest to Jewish educators, the presence of a Jewish organization on campus was associated with greater appreciative student attitudes toward Jews after controlling for demographic and other institutional covariates.

Adapted from a keynote address delivered at the 2017 Dalton Institute on College Student Values, this article introduces findings from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS), a national study aimed at identifying the high-impact practices most conducive to students’ interfaith learning and engagement. Informed by data collected from more than 20,000 first-year students attending 122 diverse colleges and universities, the article addresses how higher education leaders can build community, cooperation, and trust on campus in an era of intensified religious, ideological, and political conflict.

The current study enhances the understanding of campus climate for religious and worldview diversity by examining how non-Muslim college students perceive Muslims and Islam and what predispositions, environmental factors, and experiences predict their attitudes toward Muslims. Results indicate that informal engagement with diverse peers, interfaith engagement, and space for spiritual expression on campus are positively related to appreciative attitudes toward Muslims. With respect to specific worldviews, Unitarian Universalist and agnostic students tended to have more positive attitudes toward Muslims (relative to peers of other religions), and Eastern Orthodox and evangelical Christian students tended to have less appreciative attitudes.

Evangelical students pose a distinctive set of challenges to higher education professionals. These students, though advantaged to some degree because of their Christian identity, commonly report feeling marginalized and silenced on college campuses. In light of these tensions, the purpose of this study was to examine how non-evangelical students come to an appreciative understanding of evangelical Christianity. Specifically, the research focused on the specific campus conditions and experiences that influence non-evangelical students’ appreciative attitudes toward evangelicals. Findings reveal distinct demographic, institution type, and academic major differences in those students’ perspectives toward their evangelical peers. Additionally, the results suggest that appreciative attitudes toward evangelicals are associated with non-evangelical students’ interfaith experiences, albeit to differing degrees based on self-identified worldview. Recognizing that the work of helping non-evangelical students develop an appreciative understanding of evangelicals is as complicated as it is challenging, especially in the collegiate context, the authors conclude with a discussion of implications for research and practice.

The purpose of this study was to compare how students of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities perceive the campus religious and spiritual climate and engage in interfaith and spiritual activities during college. Using data from a national study of 13,776 students at 52 institutions that took part in the Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey, results indicate significant variations in perceptions and engagement by sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition, worldview identity shapes the relationships between sexual orientation and gender identity and perceptions of and engagement on campus.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between interfaith engagement and self-authored worldview commitment among 13,776 students enrolled at one of 52 institutions. Results indicated an association between formal and informal interfaith engagement and that this relationship was conditioned upon self-identified worldview. Implications for student development theorists and practitioners are discussed.

Based on 13,776 student respondents to the Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey (CRSCS) across three academic years at 52 colleges and universities, this study examined how aspects of the campus climate for religious and spiritual diversity related to student perceptions of transformational learning in college. Perceived transformational learning was associated with college experiences that provoked new ways of thinking and presented challenges to preexisting assumptions of reality, ceteris paribus. Some effects were conditioned on students’ self-identified religion/worldview. Implications are discussed.

In an era of rapid societal change, institutions of higher education are grappling with how to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals are safe and supported on campus. Many challenges remain as LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff are subject to continued acts of discrimination and subtle microaggressions on a regular basis, according to national assessments of campus climate. When religion and spirituality are salient on campus or in the lived experiences of LGBTQ people, the complexities of faith as it intersects with sexuality and gender identity become increasingly apparent. In this essay, we portray current issues concerning the campus climate in an effort to imagine how Christian higher education leaders might respond in light of institutional aims to promote the spiritual growth of all members of their campus communities.

This study examined the extent to which LGBT students were oriented toward pluralism and self-authored worldview commitment, as well as the conditional effects of campus climate and interfaith engagement on pluralism and worldview commitment by sexual orientation and gender identity. Drawing on data from 13,776 student respondents to the Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey at 52 institutions, results indicated the positive role of LGBT identity status in relation to self-authored worldview commitment and pluralism orientation, as well as the differential effects of some aspects of campus climate in shaping pluralism and commitment among LGB students relative to heterosexual students. Implications are discussed.

Student affairs practitioners and scholars are paying greater attention to issues of religion and spirituality on college campuses. The present study explores the link between campus religious/worldview climate and overall student engagement within a longitudinal sample of 14,517 undergraduates at 134 colleges. When controlling for various student and institutional characteristics, attending an institution with an inclusive religious/worldview climate is positively associated with participation in study abroad, service-learning, engaged learning pedagogies, and interracial interactions.

This study employed qualitative content analysis to examine the written responses of 1,071 college students to the open-ended survey question, “What does spirituality mean to you?” Connectivity is core to the way many students depict spirituality and is inherently multidimensional, as students emphasize both “external/transcendent” and “internal/immanent” spiritual connections in life. Pathways to spiritual connectivity are distinctive across worldview, with faith, belief, religiosity, and equanimity playing major or minor roles, depending on the student’s worldview.

Based on a campus climate survey involving 633 respondents from two institutions, this study examined perceptions of nonreligious acceptance on campus as a function of students’ religious identification and strength of commitment to worldview. The findings suggest that atheist students are less inclined than are their peers to perceive a positive campus climate for nonreligious individuals. In addition, committed Christians tend to have more positive perceptions of the nonreligious climate than do students of other worldviews.

Innovative approaches aimed at helping students engage with diversity abound in higher education institutions, but an understanding of effective practice in the realm of religious and worldview diversity is limited. Based on data collected from 13,776 college students attending 52 institutions across the country, this study employs multilevel modeling to examine how informal interactions with peers of diverse worldviews and participation in interfaith activities relate to pluralism orientation. The analyses reveal that student characteristics, measures of campus climate, and both formal and informal interfaith engagement relate to pluralism orientation given controls for institution-level differences. Some relationships in the model are conditional on student religion/worldview.

The first two volumes of How College Affects Students constitute the most-cited publications in higher education research. Since these volumes were published, the literature on college impact has expanded greatly, which is at least partially the result of the nearly 500 journals focusing on the scholarship of teaching and learning internationally. In addition to the increase in the quantity of college impact research, methodological advancements and the changing notion of the higher education enterprise have further shaped the rigor and tenor of the literature. We draw on our experience and lessons learned from conducting the most recent comprehensive synthesis of college impact literature to discuss 10 challenges and corresponding recommendations to advance future research of the effects of college on students. American Educational Research Association

“You have won rooms of your own in the house hitherto exclusively owned by men” (Woolf, 1942, p. 242). Setting the stage of her text in Virginia Woolf’s description of the professional challenges o...