The Student-Curriculum Interplay: A Mixed-Methods Exploration of Diversity-Related Learning Goals, Content Integration, and Students' Academic Performance in Higher Education

To reach equity in learning outcomes for a diverse student population, the study programme needs to align instructional materials with its programme learning goals related to diversity and inclusion. Higher education programmes may approach this goal through content integration, meaning the extent to which instructional materials incorporate diversity content and represent minority cultures and groups in examples, data and information. This mixed-methods study explored the relation between diversity-related learning goals, content integration and students’ individual academic performance over eight consecutive first-year courses of a pedagogical sciences programme in the Netherlands. Thematic analysis of 76 instructional materials yielded that, in line with learning goals, most diversity content in instructional materials addressed ethnic and socioeconomic differences in society and education. Notably, courses with many nuanced representations of minority cultures and groups in examples (i.e., non-stigmatising representations) were also more likely to entail generalising or stigmatising examples (i.e., biased representations) in instructional materials. Next, Generalized Additive Modeling and Bayesian multilevel regression with data from 93 students (Mage = 19.88; 90% female) revealed that despite a linear relationship, neither diversity content nor diversity representation in instructional materials were related to students’ academic performance over the first year in higher education. We discuss the added value of exploring the alignment of the intended and implemented diversity-related curriculum and we recommend academic success indicators beyond academic performance for researching and creating more equitable learning environments in higher education.