ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an activity in which college students are asked to interview two or more adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds, in order to gain understanding of the role of ethnicity as a factor in adolescent development. It presents a rationale for this approach to studying diversity, in contrast to other ways of exploring the topic, and provides a brief overview of the theoretical and empirical background for the study of ethnic identity. The chapter also describes the proposed activity, including directions given to students and the interview questions to be used. The goals of the ethnic identity assignment are to help students to gain appreciation of the role of ethnicity as a factor in adolescent development, and to learn about the differences and commonalities among adolescents from varying ethnic backgrounds. Ethnic identity commitment is harder to define than exploration, and even adolescents who have thought about the topic may have trouble articulating the meaning of their ethnicity.
