A work
in progress edited by Daniel
Schugurensky
Department of Adult Education, Community Development and Counselling Psychology,
The Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
I
am a Black parent and teacher concerned with the nature of prejudice as it
pertains to pedagogy. It is my belief that if teaching is to promote democracy
and equity of life opportunity in a capitalist society, it must be through a
critical pedagogy that addresses the nature of social prejudice. A work that is
valuable toward a critical pedagogical reflection on prejudice is Gordon W.
Allport's pioneering work The Nature of
Prejudice, first published in 1954.
Gordon W. Allport's nature of prejudice was written during and for a turbulent
period in U.S. history to address particular aspects and dimensions of
prejudices brought about by economic, legal, political and social inequality.
The book's extensive bibliography still renders it to be resourceful and
applicable in re-defining the meaning of prejudice in today's society,
particularly in schools and classrooms. The Nature of Prejudice is quite
expansive in its coverage of the aspects and dimensions of prejudice tendencies;
therefore, I will focus on its coverage of prejudice against the Negro in the
20th century and show linkages to prejudices directed towards Black people (new
group identity) in the 21st century.
Allport conveys to the reader that prejudice can carry both negative and
positive connotations. His focus, however, is primarily on the negative aspects
or the psycho-dynamics of social prejudice. In determining what constitutes
prejudice, Allport cautions the audience not to be too hasty in applying the
prejudice label to an individual's or group's prejudgments of other people.
Allport argues that the misinformed person or group should not be labeled
prejudiced if they can reverse their prejudgment when new social information is
presented. Truly negative prejudice, on the contrary, is when prejudgments are
not reversed after exposure to new knowledge. Consciousness then becomes the
determining factor in labeling an individual or group as prejudice.
Consciousness is however hidden by popular ideology: "I'm not prejudiced,
but everybody knows Blacks are not smart but they make good athletes".
Allport's The Nature of Prejudice highlights overwhelming evidence that
prejudices against the Negro is rooted in negative. Among these stereotyped of
the Negro's traits are: inferior mentality, primitive morality, emotional
instability, over-assertiveness, lazy and boisterous. In contemporary times,
prejudice is leveled at Blacks, overtly and covertly, using many of these same
stereotypes. What is the relationship between then and now?
Stereotypical images of Blacks in the dawn of the 21st century (as like the
Negro of the 20th century) serve as the cause and effect of prejudgments; known
then as racial categorizing, is now racial profiling. The Nature of Prejudice
faced by both the 20th century Negro and the 21st century Black person was/is
still premised on the construction of their identities to serve a particular
purpose in society - to give legitimacy and reason for their subjugation. Black
people today are still subjected to racial stereotypes and different forms of
prejudices. Most significant among these stereotypes for Black students,
supported of course by Murray and Hernstein's "Bell Curve”, is the notion
that Black students drop out because of their "lower" intelligence and
sense of expectation. Allport's
work suggests that we must reconsider any "science" that legitimates
prejudice against any community of people. Particularly with frequency of racial
profiling, closer attention must be paid to pedagogy and the role of teachers in
the classroom
The
Nature of Prejudice in the Classroom
All
of us have within us an inbuilt tendency to prejudge. However, as Allport points
out, some of these prejudices are social prejudices and are, as a consequence,
quite dangerous for those groups which are targeted. For example, the classroom
has served as a forum for prejudgments of students from particular racial,
ethnic and religious backgrounds. Within the classroom, the sifting and sorting
of students are routinely done in accordance with their racial group's image
and/or teachers expectations. Blacks students are frequently streamed into
non-academic and athletic programs and categorized as "special education
cases". In
his M. Ed. thesis on the measurement of the African (terminology for Blacks in
the diaspora) image on the Eurocentric value system, Kitossa notes:
The
shock of negative self-recognition an African child endures
in
a culturally denigrated body can produce alienation and
disengagement
from learning. What I have called existential
epidermal
crisis is
therefore a constant in the lives of African
Children.
This condition, already produced through a
priori
Eurocentric
cultural assumptions is compounded on contact with
Eurocentric
institutions which deepen the effect of Eurocentric
cultural
norms the status quo of the racial, class and gender group
which created these institutions. (Kitossa, 1998: 22)
This
work shows that the negation of the African child’s image in the classroom can
have a lasting and damaging effect on their psyche resulting in their alienation
and withdrawal from learning, hence their classification as special education
cases.
The
categorization of Black students in the classroom is not a new phenomenon, there
are overwhelming documentation on this predicament: in commissioned educational
reports; books such as Educating African Canadians edited by Keren S.
Brathewaite and
Carl E. James. The
African Canadian community along with other concerned communities threw their
support behind theoretical recommendation, and empathized with victimized Black
students in the educational system.
In empathizing with Black students in their alienation, disinterestedness
and disconnectedness in the classroom, Franz Fanon states:
I
should like nothing more nor less than the establishment of children's
magazines
especially for Negroes, the creation of songs for Negro children,
and,
ultimately, the publication of history texts especially for them, at least
through
the grammar-school grades. For, until there is evidence to the
contrary,
I believe that if there is a traumatism it occurs during these years.
(Fanon,
1067: 148)
Fanon, a 20th century psychiatrist and socio-political activist, recognized the need for culturally relevant materials to address the ills that Black children face in the educational system back then. Imagine the need for such materials in the 21st century, when racism is still rampant, subtler and insidiously institutionalized.
In
my experience as a teacher I observed that some White teachers have the tendency
to prejudge the performance of Black students without concrete evidence to
support their ill-advised prejudgments. Although these students' subsequent
performances might prove teachers wrong, some teachers have refused to reverse
their prejudgments.
If teaching is a democratic profession that is intended to support the liberal
economic system, why would a teacher refuse to reverse his/her prejudgments of
their students and thus interfere with equality of opportunity? This is not to
say that teachers cannot have prejudices. All of us after all have them, and
teachers are no different in this regard. The question is how does it endanger
the life opportunities for Black students when teachers utilize negative
prejudices in the classroom in their expectations of their students?
Allport's The Nature of Prejudice comments about the production of stereotypes
about several groups. Ironically, race is no barrier to the production of
stereotypes, white supremacy or middle class standards. For example, in
Pygmalion in the Classroom, the studies by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) and by
Ray Rist (1970) showed that Black teachers at times are guilty of sorting and
sifting in their classroom. They do so through the prejudiced lenses of White
Anglo-Saxon and middle-class standards.
What do you do with a teacher in a position of power who does not recognize
his/her own prejudice in the classroom? Are we conscious of our prejudice as
prejudice? These questions are pertinent to the recognition and re-direction of
prejudicial motivations in the classroom and school. Teachers will need to make
valiant efforts at redefining their belief system: the future of our children
depends on this. Ultimately, I believe it is up to the Black community and other
concerned communities to ensure accountability and fairness in the educational
process.
Sources:
1.
Allport G. 1979
The Nature of Prejudice, Massachusetts. Addison –Wesley Publishing
Company.
2. Hernstein, R. & C. Murray 1994, The Bell Curve, Intelligence and Class Structure in American
Life, New York: The Free Press.
3. Rosenthal, R. & L. Jacobson 1968, Pygmalion in The Classroom, Teacher Expectation & Pupils’
Intellectual Development: USA: Rhinehart & Winston Inc.
4.
Fanon, Fantz 1967, Black Skin White Mask. New York: Grove Press.
5. Kitossa, Tamari 1998, Image, Identity, and Experience in the Educational Encounter: Life
Histories of Four African Canadian Men. M. Ed. Thesis, York University.
2002
Citation: Author (2002). Title. In Daniel Schugurensky (Ed.), History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century [online]. Available: http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~daniel_schugurensky/assignment1/ (date accessed).
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