Oral presentation in the SWDTC conference ‘Integrating Perspectives’, Bath, November 5th 2014

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING ANTI-RACIST ACTIVITIES IN PRIMARY EDUCATION:PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE FROM GREECE

Panagiota Sotiropoulou (University of Bristol)

Introduction•The states of Western Europe, especially those in the South, have transformed into multicultural mosaics due to the presence of immigrants (Messina, 2007). •This fact has a direct impact on education, as well, where the multicultural classroom is now the norm and not the exception (Spinthourakis, Lalor & Berg, 2011).

•Education appears to play a major role in both the integration of immigrants and the familiarization of native students with diversity (Kane & Kyyrö, 2001; Tarc, 2006; Slee, 2006; Simon, 2007; The group of Eminent Persons of the Council of Europe, 2011).

•A number of studies indicate that intervention programs dealing with diversity issues on a scholastic level have a beneficial effect on students’ attitudes towards racism and diversity (Soble, Spanierman & Liao, 2011; Kernahan & Davis, 2007; Case, 2007; Turner & Brown, 2008).

• Although a lot of educational interventions have as their aim the improvement of students’ attitudes towards diversity, only few of them measure their efficacy (Aboud & Levy, 2000).

• The vast majority of those interventions are implemented in tertiary education.

• Turner & Brown (2008): Only study available concerning the effect of an anti-racist intervention program in primary school level, aiming at tackling prejudice against refugees.

• All of the studies are implemented either in the American or the UK context.

The Greek case• Immigrants: 9% of the total population

(OECD, 2013)• 2010-2011: 10.5% of the student population

was immigrants (Kathimerini, 2011)• Biggest concentration in Nurseries and

Primary Schools (Triantafyllidou, 2011)• One of the EU countries with the highest

anti-immigrant and xenophobic attitudes• Students, even though holding the most

accommodating attitudes within the educational context, not ready to fully accept diversity

• Familiarization with and respect of diversity is one of the basic aims of the new national curriculum for the Elementary School (Ministry of Education, 2003)

Research question• Does the teaching of antiracist

activities have any positive impact on attitudes towards diversity for elementary school students?

Theoretical Framework

‘[…] some people’s differences are looked upon as deficits and disadvantages. In anti-racist education, we attempt to look at –and change- those things in school and society that prevent some differences form being valued’.

‘[W]hen I say […] anti-racist education, I am talking about equipping students […] and teachers with the tools needed to combat racism and ethnic discrimination, and to find ways to build a society that includes all people on an equal footing’.

Lee, E. (2004:140-141).

Anti-racist Education (Dei & Sefa ,1996; May, 1994)

• First developed during the late 1980’s in the UK and the Netherlands

• Tackling racism in all of its aspects, such as stereotypes

• Trying to change the structures (e.g. curriculum) which produce and reproduce unequal power relations

• Students of a different race are isolated as their race group is not included in the curriculum and is rather portrayed in a specific, stereotypical way (Bolgatz, 2005)

• Address issues of race and culture together (Donald & Rattansi, 1992) - attempt to synthesize anti-racist and multicultural education (Leicester, 1992)

Basic teaching practice: Intervention programs• Interactive and collaborative, including

team discussions and role plays (Thompson, 2002)

• Requires the collaboration of all the educational stakeholders (e.g. head teacher, leading teacher)

• Activities that help children spot prejudice and discrimination around them (Spencer, 1998)

• Unfair treatment is spotted internal conflict is experienced feelings of guilt adoption of a more positive stance towards diversity from the side of each student (Devine, Monteith, Zuwernick & Elliot, 1991; Turner & Brown, 2008)

Description of the sample• 95 students• 6 different classes of Years 3 and 4

from 2 different schools with similar characteristics

• Patras, Greece• 4 experimental groups (65 students)• 2 control groups (30 students)

Methodology• Quasi-experimental research with control

and treatment groups so as to be able to show causal relations

• Questionnaires (Pre- and Post-test) measuring the level of agreement or disagreement with 10 statements related to 3 basic aspects of diversity

• Those aspects were the focus of the activities taught throughout the intervention

• 10 point semantic differential scale

Design• Pre-test (20 minutes – 1 teaching hour)• Intervention (1 activity for 1 teaching

hour every week)• Post-test (20 minutes – 1 teaching hour,

1 week after the teaching of the last activity)

• Total duration: 5 teaching hours , 4 weeks (February – March 2012)

InterventionTeaching of 3 sample activities

1. Chocolate milk and skin color (Ingram, 2004)

2. Walk apart – walk together (ibid)

3. Diversity Masks (Triliva, Anagnostopoulou & Chatzinikolaou, 2008)

Aims of the Intervention• Understanding of why people around the

world have different skin colors• Realization of the existence of both

similarities and differences between people

• Realization of the value of diversity

Analysis

Coding• CG A/B = Control Groups• Y3 A/B, Y4 A/B = Year 3 & Year 4

Experimental Groups• Factor creation:a) SKNCOL = questions connected to the

activity ‘Chocolate milk and Skin color’b) SIMDIF = questions connected to the

activity ‘Walk apart, walk together’c) VALDIF = questions connected to the

activity ‘Diversity Masks’• Score raging from 0-10 (totally disagree

– totally agree), with higher values indicating a better stance towards diversity

Questions grouping• SKNCOL1. I would make friends with someone with a

different skin color.2. A black person is less smart than a

white one.3. If someone has dark skin, it means that

they are dirty. • SIMDIF1. People that are not similar cannot work

together as a team.2. Team members have both similarities and

differences to each other.3. Similarities and differences between

people are all visible at first glance.

• VALDIF1. The world would be better, if we were

all identical.2. We should treat each person as though

they were special/unique.3. We must attempt to make everybody match

us and not accept their differences.

Results

 Pre-test

mean scores

CGA CGB Y3A Y3B Y4A Y4B

SKNCO (/30) 26.5 24.6 23.4 26.8 25.7 24.2

SIMDIF (/30) 21.6 21.4 19.3 21.6 25.5 21.8

VALDIF (/30) 25 21.0 21.4 23.7 22.3 22.5

TOTALSUM

(/90)

73.1 67.0 64.1 72.1 73.5 68.5

 Post-test

mean scores

CGA CGB Y3A Y3B Y4A Y4B

SKNCO (/30) 26.1 24.9 27.1 26.5 22.9 26.9

SIMDIF (/30) 22.0 22.2 22.9 25.5 23.0 24.3

VALDIF (/30) 25.1 19.7 26.7 27.5 22.8 24.6

TOTALSUM

(/90)

73.2 66.8 76.7 79.5 68.7 75.8

  CGA CGB Y3A Y3B Y4A Y4BSig TOTAL SUM

*= p ≤ 0,05 0.976 0.989 0.015* 0.172 0.212 0.130

Conclusions – Future plans

Conclusions• Control groups’ attitudes did not show

any statistically significant change

• The only group, whose attitudes showed a statistically significant alteration was one of the Y3 experimental groups

• This might indicate that the earliest anti-racist interventions programs are introduced, the more successful the results are

Future plans• Visit more schools and different

educational levels in diverse contexts• Apply more activities for a longer period

of time (complete intervention of 30 teaching hours)

• Focus more on team work• Create a more detailed questionnaire, so

as to be able to collect more data (e.g. gender, achievement)

• Make comparisons between the effect of different activities

• Create an anti-racist educational tool-kit with the most effective activities

THANK YOU FOR YOURTIME AND ATTENTION!

For further information and contact:

ps13601@my.bristol.ac.uk

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