The Role of Ethnic Contact in Facilitating Interactions Between Minority and Han College Students

Abstract

At a multiethnic school in the northwest region, the author chose 670 minority and Han college students as study subjects and investigated the relationships among the three variables of ethnic contact, implicit ethnic theories (essentialism vs. constructivism), and attitudes on interaction. The study results show that ethnic contact can facilitate positive ethnic interaction attitudes and mitigate the negative effect of ethnic essentialist beliefs in ethnic interactions. The author advocates that building a tolerant and open ethnic education system is the only way to create opportunities for contact and interaction between students of each ethnic group, weaken ethnic essentialist beliefs, and facilitate ethnic interaction and relations.

Keywords:

• ethnic contact
• ethnic essentialism
• implicit ethnic theories

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gao Chenghai

Gao Chenghai is a Doctor of Education at Northwest Normal University’s Institute for Northwest Ethnic Minority Education Development.