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Creating Classrooms
that Address Race and
Ethnicity
Chapter 6
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
©2012 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Lay vs Scientific Understanding of
Race & Ethnicity
• Pedagogies: Old and New
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o
Teachers do not shy away from the deep-seated influence that
race plays in people’s lives.
Teachers understand the historical significance of race.
Teachers are aware that majority children may not understand
the role race plays in their lives.
• Roles: Old and New
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o
o
Teachers understand their roles as active agents of change.
Teachers reach out to individuals and community groups that
represent various ethnic and racial groups.
Students interact with community groups working to change
the status quo.
6-2
• Place of Content Knowledge: Old and New
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History of diversity in the United States a critical element
Concept of “race” often used incorrectly
 Genotype—shared genetic material
 Phenotype—visible traits (e.g., skin color)
Textbooks often inaccurate and dated
Content materials often biased (intentionally or unintentionally)
• Assessment: Old and New
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Assessment instruments may be developed and normed with
only one race or ethnic group in mind.
Assessments should consider the sociocultural context of the
learner.
 Biases and stereotypes
 Prior experience of the learner
Assessments should be varied.
6-3
Understanding Prejudice and
Racism
• Ethnocentrism leads people to believe that their
own “ways” are good and “natural.”
• Prejudice implies a lack of thought or care in
making a judgment with prejudicial responses
being quick, narrow in scope, and based
oftentimes on negative emotions rather than
accurate information.
• While racial and ethnic prejudice can be
expressed both positively and negatively, in the
United States it is most often negative.
6-4
The Functions of Prejudice
• Adjustment Function—prejudicial attitudes may
help one adjust to a complex world
• Ego-Defensive Function—prejudicial attitudes
may protect one’s self-concept
• Value-Expressive Function—prejudicial attitudes
may help demonstrate one’s own self-concept to
others
• Knowledge Function—prejudicial attitudes may
reinforce the stereotypical knowledge of one’s
ingroup
6-5
Prejudice Formation: The
Components of Prejudice
• The cognitive component refers to the process of
categorization.
• The affective component refers to the feelings
that accompany a person’s thoughts about
members of a particular group.
• The behavioral component refers to the
discriminatory behavior that people who harbor
prejudices direct toward others.
6-6
How Children Learn Prejudice
• Observation and passive learning from respected
elders
• Membership in a group that excludes others
• The media, when it reinforces stereotypes
• Religious fundamentalism that emphasizes
exclusive rights to “the truth”
6-7
Extreme Cases of Prejudice
• Racism—the transformation of prejudicial
attitudes through the use of power directed
toward those one regards as inferior
• Hate Groups—any organized body that
denigrates select groups of people based on
ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orientation; or
that advocates the use of violence against such
groups or their members for purposes of
scapegoating
cont.
6-8
• White Privilege—the largely unconscious
acceptance by dominant groups of privileges
denied to oppressed groups
• Racial Profiling—law enforcement practices
aimed at those who “fit” a particular profile—
usually age, ethnicity, and/or race
6-9
Strategies for Prejudice Reduction
• Both teachers and parents must be comfortable
discussing issues of race with children.
• Critical to reducing prejudice and establishing an
interculturally sensitive classroom is the
teacher’s understanding of, and ability to
integrate, intercultural awareness and prejudice
reduction activities into the curriculum.
• Intercultural sensitivity is not “natural”—crosscultural contact has historically been
accompanied by bloodshed, oppression, or
genocide.
6-10
Improving Social Contact &
Intergroup Relations
• Equal Status Contact: When those who are brought together
perceive they have equal status and equal access to rewards
• Superordinate Goals: When the purpose of bringing people
together cannot be accomplished without the participation of all
• Encouragement of Intergroup Interaction: All involved in a
school must actively encourage and support efforts of teachers
and students to experiment with curricular and other
innovations to improve the school involvement with differences.
• Personal Familiarity: People must have the opportunity to get
to know the “other” person in ways that render the stereotypic
image clearly inaccurate or inappropriate.
6-11
Some Cautions in Applying the
Contact Hypothesis
• Many schools are monocultural, providing little
opportunity for intergroup contact to occur; in
such cases it is best to stress the diversity that
is present (e.g., socioeconomic or gender).
• Equal status contact within the school may
conflict with that which occurs outside the
school.
6-12
Increasing Cognitive
Sophistication
• Persons high in cognitive complexity are able to
analyze a situation into many constituent
elements and then explore connections and
potential relationships among those elements.
• Thinking in a critical manner is antithetical to
prejudicial thinking, because rather than reacting
quickly due to an emotional response, students
must search for and examine the reasons behind
their thoughts and actions.
6-13
Classrooms That Encourage
Critical Thought
• Students feel respected, safe, and trusting.
• Classroom is a learning community
• Balance maintained between teacher and
student talks
• Students learn about metacognition--becoming
aware of how one has come to a decision
• Mistakes not seen as failure, but as opportunity
to keep learning
6-14
Improving Self-Confidence and
Self-Acceptance
• A sense of self-worth and self-confidence
supports the reduction of prejudice.
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Students feel secure and accepted.
Student participation is valued.
Students know the boundaries and limits of behavior.
6-15
Increasing Empathy for and
Understanding of Others
• Long-term gains in prejudice reduction require
educational activity that actively engages the
emotions
o
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Writing stories or acting out dramatizations of cross-cultural
situations
Any activity that enables students to “step into the shoes” of
another
Classroom simulations that generate “culture shock”
6-16
Comprehensive Programs That
Improve Intergroup Relations
• Anti-Bias Education for Young Children—a
curriculum published by the National Association
for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
• Cooperative Learning—helping children work
together in pursuit of the common goal of
achieving the objectives of the lesson at hand
• A World of Difference—a curriculum developed
by the Anti-Defamation League to address issues
of prejudice and racism
• Facing History and Ourselves—focus on the
history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
6-17