Polyculturalism: Current evidence, future directions, and implementation possibilities for diverse youth

With increasing diversity across many societies, it is critical to understand how to promote positive intergroup interactions among diverse youth in educational and other settings. Polyculturalism - a concept from the discipline of history - has recently been studied in psychology as an approach to addressing diversity and an individual difference belief, namely endorsing that diverse groups have interacted and exchanged with each other, thus influencing each other’s cultures throughout history. Although polyculturalism has been studied with adults, evidence suggests it may have important implications for youth’s experiences with diversity, including in schools. In this chapter, the authors: review research on diverse youth in educational settings; review research on polyculturalism, which has been found to be associated with positive intergroup attitudes and behavioral intentions, including toward immigrants; identify needed future research on polyculturalism among youth; and discuss possible implementation of polyculturalism to support positive intergroup interactions among diverse youth.