Intercultural Education in the Post-Primary School - National Council ...

CLASSROOM PLANNING 4attitudes; unfavourable stories engendermore negative attitudes. Bias in textbookscan be conveyed in a number of ways. Thefour most common forms of bias areinaccuracy, stereotyping, omissions anddistortions and biased language usage.Developing the ability to recognise bias is akey skill for helping students becomecritical readers for life. This skill should befostered not just in relation to readingtextbooks but also in relation to using theinternet, films, videos and other media.There are a growing number ofintercultural education packs available inIreland as well as resources in the relatedareas of human rights, conflict and peaceand development education. TheDevelopment Education Unit ofDevelopment Co-operation Ireland (Dept.of Foreign Affairs) produces an annualguide to available resources that may be ofuse to teachers. Pavee Point also produceslists of resources that promote equality anddiversity in schools. (See the resource listfor an extensive list of resources.)In many cases teachers do not need to lookbeyond their existing texts and curriculumdocuments to find the necessary resources.Where existing resources offer limitedopportunities to explore difference, topromote equality or to develop criticalthinking skills, this can, in itself be turnedinto a resource. Through questioning whatperspectives are missing and how the samematerial or event might be presented orviewed differently or though comparingtexts with other possible source materials,teachers can use limited material to developpupils’ capacity to think about the way inwhich information is presented to them.The following checklist will be of use inchoosing and using texts or resources foruse in the class. These issues apply equallyto fictional and factual resources. Forexample, questions regarding therepresentation of a diversity of ethnicgroups apply as much to an Englishlanguage reader as they do to a Geographytextbook.The resource should make realisticassumptions about the backgroundknowledge of the learners.• Does it choose examples, stories orillustrations, which are predominantlydrawn from one culture, or does it usestories, examples and illustrations thatmight be familiar to different groups ofchildren from their home life?• If the material is biased, how can theteacher mediate this to bridge the gapbetween the starting point of the pupiland that of the resource?The resource should realistically andpositively reflect a diversity of ethnicgroups in its text, illustrations andexercises.• Are there sufficient representations ofmembers of minority ethnic groups usedto ensure that the dominance of themajority ethnic group in images ofIreland in everyday life is balanced?• Are the images chosen to reflectaccurately people’s current daily lives?• Are minority ethnic groups or peoplefrom other countries represented instereotypical ways (for example, areAfricans largely depicted as living inpoverty and in need of aid, are NativeAmericans depicted largely in terms offrontier wars and struggles, are membersof minority groups depicted largely interms of their feasts or festivals)?• Are particular groups represented onlyin terms of their membership of thatgroup (for example, are Travellersrepresented in ‘ordinary’ mathsquestions or stories, or do they onlyappear when minority issues are underdiscussion)?Intercultural Education in the Post-Primary School 39