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Mitchell Chang
mjchang@gseis.ucla.edu
310.825.0504
Professor of Education
The Sudikoff Family Institute Fellow for 2004 - 05
Examining issues of diversity in higher education,
Professor Mitchell J. Chang’s work is an outgrowth of the cultural consciousness
that took root during the modern civil rights movement in the United States
more than thirty years ago. Initiatives that promote diversity such as
affirmative action, ethnic studies, and cross-cultural requirements grew out of
that period of social activism and have been enacted on campuses nationwide
since that time. Standing as a bellwether of democracy in education, such
initiatives serve as a driving force for continuing reform. With an interest
towards advancing student learning and establishing a more democratic standard
for colleges and universities around the world, Dr. Chang examines the
educational effectiveness of initiatives that address race and ethnicity.
As one of the world’s leading scholars on
diversity-focused issues and initiatives, Professor Chang’s book, Compelling
Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education (2003,
Stanford University Press) , was cited in the U.S. Supreme
Court ruling of Grutter v. Bollinger, one of two cases involving the use of
race sensitive admissions practices at the University of Michigan.
Professor Chang completed two groundbreaking
collaborative research projects in 2004. Psychological Science
, a journal of the American Psychological
Society, published the results of a study that examined the
dynamics of racial diversity on complex thinking in its
August ’04 issue. The study establishes that diversity within a group leads to more
complex thinking and original points-of-view, and demonstrates better critical
analysis and a tendency towards flexibility and a willingness to change.
A second study’s findings, which utilized a national
longitudinal data set of college students, examined the educational significance
of cross-racial interaction. Results were published in the August ’04 issue of
the academic journal, Research in Higher Education
Professor Chang is currently engaged as co-Principal
Investigator on a four-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) through the Higher Education Research Institute
at UCLA’s Graduate School of
Education and Information Studies. This comprehensive national project examines
underrepresented students’ access to resources and forms of engagement that
result in outcomes such as skills, dispositions, and behaviors that are
necessary for a research career in the biomedical and behavioral
sciences. The goal of the study is to assist colleges and universities in
their education of racial and ethnic minority students who serve as role models
and can address important questions related to their population of origin
through a research career.
Professor Chang has been the recipient of numerous honors
and awards. Among them, he received the 2008 Asian Pacific American
Network Outstanding Contribution to APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi
Americans) Research Award for his co-authorship of the report, “Beyond
Myths: The Growth and Diversity of Asian American College Freshmen,
1971-2005.” Additionally, he served as the National Academy of Education
Spencer Fellow for 2001, as well as the Salzburg Seminar’s University Project
Fellow for 2001. He was the recipient of the Outstanding Outcomes Assessment
Research Award in 2000, and was the Asian American Studies Institute Fellow at
the University of Massachusetts in 2000.
Prior to joining the UCLA faculty in 1999, Professor
Chang held positions at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Stanford
University, and Loyola Marymount University. He earned a Doctor of
Philosophy in Education from UCLA in 1996 and received his Masters in Education
from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of
California, Santa Barbara.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/members/mjchang
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