Public Attitudes Towards Cultural Authority and Cultural Diversity
in Higher Education and the Arts
Working Paper #11. Spring 2000
Paul DiMaggio and Bethany Bryson
ABSTRACT
Using data from a representative sample of Americans aged 18 and
over who were surveyed in 1993, the authors explore public attitudes
towards a range of issues related to cultural authority and cultural
diversity in higher education and the arts. The issues addressed
include support for the role of the classics in education; willingness
to alter literature curricula to make room for work by women and
people of color; bilingual education in the schools; confidence
in the curricular judgment of teachers and professors; the value
of modern art; the relative quality of high, popular, and folk
culture; and the extent to which the ability to recognize excellence
in art is rare or widespread. Analyses belie the notion that Americans'
attitudes reflect a "culture war" that pits supporters of the
classics and high culture against advocates of multiculturalism
and cultural diversity. Three separate and largely orthogonal
dimensions emerged out of the analyses: support for traditional
high culture; support for cultural diversity; and skeptical attitudes
towards cultural authority. No tendency was observed for people
who support traditional high culture to oppose multicultural reforms
(or vice versa). Indeed, educational attainment was strongly associated
with support for both.
Analyses also disconfirm arguments that high culture has lost
legitimacy or credibility since the 1960s, or that there has been
any "closing of the American mind." Although support for cultural
diversity has grown since the 1960s (in part due to a decline
in racism), baby boomers and members of "Generation X," including
those who attended college during the 1960s and in later decades,
are as likely as their counterparts in previous generations to
agree that the classics are important and that there is merit
in "modern art." In other words, contemporary Americans acknowledge
the value of conventionally defined high culture while at the
same time discerning value in other cultural forms and often approving
of reforms that enhance cultural diversity.
 Full
text version in PDF format. |
