Teaching Prejudice Reduction in High School Students, School and the Community - Research Paper Example

Gordon Allport identified prejudice as a feeling, positive or harsh, towards an individual or thing, prior to, or not derived from, real experience (Allport 2). This paper will research on ways one would go about teaching prejudice reduction in high school students, school and community. Prejudicial beliefs and attitudes challenge values of social justice in a moderate democracy. Prejudice in learning institutions is troubling because they are public areas in which learners study to construct and negotiate knowledge of disparities.

When prejudicial attitudes go uninspected in learning institutions, students are not granted the chance to disassemble prejudicial knowledge (Bandura 34). The effect of prejudicial actions on students is broad, extending from lower school performance to deprived mental and physical health. For instance, recent research illustrated that the Asian Pacific American learners encounter prejudicial attitudes regarding expectations of high academic achievement. A single Asian Pacific American student is anticipated to shine in academics based upon combined group data in spite of his or her individual abilities or needs (Cohen 56).

These prejudices coalesce with family prospects bring out high levels of stress among learners. As a result, some Asian Pacific American scholars report serious misery and suicidal feelings than their European and American counterparts. The lessening of prejudice is essential for vigorous and equitable learning surroundings that promote a student’s physical, academic and mental health (Cohen 56). Creating awareness of the effects of prejudice to high schools students, schools and the community at large is a vital key of reducing prejudice.

This is because as students observe alternate stories of different groups, they start the deconstruction of hegemonic typical stories that effect social disparity. For instance, rather than having monolingual voice in subjects like history, learners are capable of listening to several voices that explain the history from a variety of views. Learners develop the skill to evaluate discrepancies that exist to effect inequalities by studying several views of history. Transformative information becomes a possible source for exceptional change by enlightening and communicating the variations between the democratic principles in a society plus its practices.

The transformation of information entails raising diverse queries and reexamining what is the official information. The official information explains the attitude of typical stories to the status of being natural, normal or truth. Because official information is often effected by a school’s program, a critical assessment of the curriculum is a vital aspect of multicultural education. This assessment is essential for students to deconstruct prejudicial information and establish an appreciation of diverse cultures.

The mass media play a pivotal responsibility in enlightening the reduction of prejudice in the society. The mass media assists in enlightening the society about the effects of prejudice. Educators can also assist students to study the way in which diverse social groups are exposed in mass media. Recent research has found that, though, the media often promotes the growth of prejudicial attitudes because it occasionally gives a wider understanding of different perspectives. Finally, prejudiced actions like tracking should be expelled as a means of reducing prejudice (Cortes 125).

Researchers have called for awareness