Exercise 4.5. – We all have prejudices

Living Democracy » Textbooks » Teaching Democracy » Chapter 4 – Perceiving others » Exercise 4.5. – We all have prejudices

Educational objectives	In this exercise, the students question stereotypes and prejudices about other people and minorities. They discover the perceptions of different minorities. The students become aware of their limits of tolerance and of their confrontational value systems. The students are trained to develop their skills of active listening in seeking an agreement.
Resources	One copy of the activity sheet (the scenario) for each student.

Procedure

Each student receives a copy of the scenario and reads it silently.
Each person chooses three people with whom he/she would prefer to travel and three more they would rather not travel with.
The students form groups of four.
- They compare their individual choices and respective reasons for their choices.
- They try to agree on a list with three preferences and three dislikes.
- They choose a spokesperson for their group.
Each group presents its list of preferred and excluded companions to the whole class, giving the reasons for their choices.
The teacher encourages a free discussion of experiences, for example:
- What were the main determining factors?
- If the group has not agreed on a list of preferences, why not?
- Which stereotypes does the list of passengers imply?
- Where do these images come from?
- How would you feel if no one wanted to share a compartment with you, for example?

Extension

The list may be adapted depending on the age group and the students’ social background, but it should include people who represent minorities that are clearly discernible at first sight and others that are not.

Minorities and discrimination can also be studied through literature or history.

Materials

The scenario

You have begun a long train journey which is going to last for several days. You are sharing a sleeping compartment with three other people.

Which of the following passengers would you prefer to share your compartment with?

With which of the passengers would you not want to share your compartment?

a fat Swiss banker
an Italian disc jockey who takes drugs
an African selling exotic articles
a gypsy who has just come out of prison
a feminist German rock singer
a homosexual foreign student
a young Romanian woman carrying a young child
an English skinhead who is drunk
an HIV positive prostitute
a very poor refugee
an armed foreign soldier
a young woman who only speaks French

Exercise 4.4. - First impressions

Exercise 4.6. - We are all equal, but some are more equal than others

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