Download Intro to PEO

This slideshow has been designed
for use by students on Introductory
level and Intermediate 2 level Care
courses. It will familiarise users with
issues relevant to the ideas and
practice of promoting equal
opportunities.
Objectives of this package
This package provides an introduction to
some of the issues associated with
promoting an equality of opportunity. On
completion, you will have an understanding
of the meaning of prejudice, stereotyping
and discrimination and how they relate to
one another. You will be aware of ways in
which people may be disadvantaged by
discrimination and also of how it may affect
them. You should also have an awareness of
the main points of the key legislation in this
area.
Promoting Equal Opportunities
“Care workers are generally concerned with trying to provide
the resources and services that individuals need to improve
the quality of their day-to-day lives. The principles and values
of care provision show us that everyone should be valued
equally and treated equally.”
But are people all treated equally and fairly?
Click here for Activity 1
Talking In The Street Copyright: Getty Images
Racial Unrest Area Copyright: Getty Images
Inflammatory Graffiti 1968 Copyright: Getty Images
In the previous exercises, you have
been looking at the idea of people not
being “treated equally”. Another way of
talking about that kind of treatment is to
talk about “discrimination”. You will
probably be familiar with this term and
you may even use it yourself.
But what exactly is “discrimination”?
Barnardo’s Boys Copyright: Getty Images
Malnutrition Copyright: Getty Images
Click here to look at a definition of
“discrimination”
Left on Crutches Copyright: Getty Images
Where does discrimination come
from?
From the definition of discrimination
we have looked at, we can see that it
is about how we treat people. That is
to say, it is about how we behave; it’s
about what we do.
Inflammatory Graffiti 1968 Copyright: Getty Images
Follow this link for an activity to
identify things that people do that
could be considered to cause
discrimination.
Racial Unrest Area Copyright: Getty Images
“Why do people discriminate
against others?” (1)
From the list of examples that you
made in the last activity, you will have
seen that not only is discrimination
fairly common but it can be done by
anyone and not only by people that
might be thought of as “bad” or “evil”.
Follow this link for a study group
exercise that looks at why this
might be.
Malnutrition Copyright: Getty Images
“Why do people discriminate against
others?” (2)
Look back at your answers in the previous
activity. Generally, what we can see is that
people will behave in a discriminatory way
because of what they believe about others
and because of their attitudes towards them.
Where these beliefs and attitudes tend to be
negative, people are more likley to behave in
a negative way – that is to say, they are
more likley to discriminate against the group
that they have negative beliefs or attitudes
about.
Beliefs, attitudes and behaviour.
Our attitudes, our beliefs and our
behaviour are all closely linked and
related, as the diagram shows:
When people have a set of negative beliefs
about other individuals and the groups that
they belong to, we called those beliefs
“stereotypes”. When they have a set of
negative attitudes about these individuals and
groups, which are formed when they
“prejudge” them, forming an opinion of them
before they even know them, we tend to call
these attitudes “prejudice”. In the same way
that we have already seen that beliefs,
attitudes and behaviours are all linked, we
can now see that stereotyping, prejudice and
discrimination are all linked in the same way.
“Why do people discriminate against
others?” (2)
Look back at your answers in the previous
activity. Generally, what we can see is that
people will behave in a discriminatory way
because of what they believe about others
and because of their attitudes towards them.
Where these beliefs and attitudes tend to be
negative, people are more likeley to behave
in a negative way – that is to say, they are
more likeley to discriminate against the
group that they have negative beliefs or
attitudes about.
Legislation
One of the main ways in which we can tackle
discrimination is by making it illegal. In the UK, we
currently have a number of pieces of legislation
(laws) which do exactly this. The purpose of these
laws is to try to make sure that everyone is
treated equally, that everyone should have the
same opportunities and not be disadvantaged
because of their gender, skin colour, disability or
any other factor.
The main pieces of legislation that make
discrimination illegal are as follows:
• The Race Relations Act 1976
• The Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• The Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Read each of these short guides and then try
the legislation
Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Follow this link to read more about the
“Myths of Asylum Seeking”
Once you have read that report, try this