Uncharted Territory: Mapping Students' Conceptions of Ethnic Diversity‪.‬

ABSTRACT/RESUME This paper presents findings from a research project that focuses on grade seven students' understandings of ethnic diversity. It describes the ways in which students understand the concept of ethnic diversity and the related concept, tolerance. It represents a significant shift from past research that has focused solely on attitudes toward ethnic diversity without investigating the knowledge structures that inform an individual's mind-set. Data for this study were collected using semi-structured, stimuli centered interviews. Phenomenographic analysis techniques were used to develop descriptions of the students' understandings of the concept. We argue that students understand the concept of ethnic diversity in a limited number of qualitatively different ways, and that, in general, these understandings are far less sophisticated than those outlined in curricular expectations.