SOCIOLOGY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY - STRATEGIES FOR COMPARATIVE MULTICULTURAL COURSES

Diversity breadth requirements, also known as multicultural requiremen ts, are fast becoming an integral part of undergraduate education in A merican universities. This newly created requirement imposes a number of demands on comparative multicultural courses, including courses on sociology of race and ethnicity. In this essay we identify the challen ges to curriculum development posed by the sociology of race and ethni city as a specific example of a comparative multicultural course. We s how how conventional course design, which is group-oriented, is less l ikely to fulfill the new demands and challenges confronting comparativ e multicultural courses. We propose a new, concept-oriented course des ign and provide suggestions for implementation.