This study explores law school faculty beliefs about the influence of racial/ethnic diversity on their pedagogy, classroom discussions, curriculum, research, and student learning outcomes. The study examines the relationship between faculty's beliefs about racial/ethnic diversity and the largest percentage of minority students ever enrolled in one of their courses controlling for their background characteristics i.e. race/ethnicity, gender; teaching field; and the characteristics of their law schools i.e. size, control, level of diversity. 539 full-time law school faculty from a nationally drawn random sample of 966 law school faculty responded to the Faculty Classroom Diversity Questionnaire.; The general findings of the study suggest that there are no negative effects of racial/ethnic diversity in law schools generally, in the type of students admitted, and in classroom discussions. Diversity has not caused law school faculty to change their criteria for evaluating students and the majority of respondents believe that racial/ethnic diversity is "important" to their law school's mission. Faculty also report that racial/ethnic diversity creates more substantive discussions in their classrooms, with the presence of minority students allowing for a broader variety of perspectives to be shared---in some cases with perspectives that would not necessarily be introduced by non-minority students. Additionally, faculty report that white students are positively affected by racially/ethnically diverse classrooms and that participation of students in discussions increases when there are more students from the same racial/ethnic group in the class. Lastly, composite outcomes variables for pedagogy, classroom discussions, curriculum and research were all found to be associated with the largest percentage of minority students ever enrolled in one of their courses, even after controlling for personal and institutional characteristics.; This study informs pressing policy/legal decisions regarding the educational value of diversity and the use of race/ethnicity in admissions by providing empirical evidence of the influences racially/ethnically diverse classrooms is having on classroom processes. The study also contributes to a sparse literature on the influence of student characteristics on faculty pedagogy, course content, classroom discussions, research activities, and student learning, providing researchers with a conceptual understanding of external factors which influence teaching in higher education.
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