In the News: Few Students Pursue Opportunities to Explore Religious Diversity. Is There a Way Forward?
Springtide Research Institute was recently featured in the Heterodox Academy Blog. This article, Few Students Pursue Opportunities to Explore Religious Diversity. Is There a Way Forward? is reprinted in part below, but we encourage you to visit their site to read the piece in its entirety.
The Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) followed thousands of students through four years of college (2015-2019) and tracked their experiences with worldview diversity on campus to learn the degree to which college is preparing students for a pluralistic society.
Strikingly, IDEALS discovered that, of the thousands of students who completed the survey at the end of their senior year, only 14% reported participating in an interfaith dialogue during college, only 11% participated in an interfaith service project, and only 9% participated in interfaith or religious diversity training on campus. Classroom opportunities were pursued more frequently, but not by much: Only a quarter of students (26%) enrolled in a religion course specifically designed to enhance their knowledge of different religious traditions. Less than half said they spent intentional time learning about a religious group during college.
Click here to read the article in its entirety.
