DEPARTMENTof EDUCATION
Feature Image
Printer Friendly Version

Sample student learning experiences dealing with racism

Teachers are encouraged to include cultural issues in many facets of their teaching and learning programs. The benefits of learning by example, of seeing cultural inclusivity as part of the norm, not a separate part of the curriculum, are many.

Activity 1

Aim: To give students an experience of the powerlessness of the preliterate in another language and, through the experience, enhance their cultural awareness.

The activity can be adapted for use with both adults and students.

  • The presenter passes to participants a piece of Hindi script and asks them to write their name on the top of the piece of paper and then copy the first word on the second line.
  • After a period of time the presenter talks about the judgements made by English speakers who assume that anyone who is preliterate in English is preliterate in any language. The participants are experiencing the powerlessness of not being able to use decoding skills and not even being able to determine which is the top of the piece of paper. The presenter could draw a parallel to beginning literacy in a first language and the process of knowing that marks on paper convey meaning.
  • Discuss: English speakers do not describe themselves as non-Hindi speaking; why should Hindi speakers be described as non-English speaking? What is implicit in the description?
  • A variation is provided if the presenter gives instructions in another language and when participants express their frustration at not being able to understand, she/ he speaks more loudly and slowly.

Activity 2

Aim: To show students that attitudes to people from other cultures are largely based on stereotypes.
  • Explain to students that some people find it hard to accept difference. Attitudes to difference may be based on personal experience or personal contact. More often they are based on hearsay, misinformation, family attitudes and what is read in newspapers and magazines or seen on television, videos or computer games.
  • Research comic strips/ television cartoon programs and record data:
Comic/ Program name 1:      
 2:     
 3:     
Number of Aboriginal people in the cast


Their role in the story


Number of times they appeared


Number of people from language backgrounds other than English in the cast


Their role


Number of times they appeared


Their country of origin


Activity 3

Aim: To make students aware of the difference between fact and opinion and to demonstrate that many prejudices are based on opinion only.
Using a set of statements like these on a chart or whiteboard, ask students working in pairs or small groups to determine which statements are fact and which are opinion.
  • Women make better teachers than men.
  • North Launceston is the best team in the TSFL.
  • Sydney is the largest city in Australia.
  • Lamb tastes better than beef.
  • People need water to live.
  • Yothu Yindi is a rock band.

Discuss: What is the difference between fact and opinion? How do people use facts in discussions about cultural groups? Do they use opinions in the same way?

Activity 4

Aim: To have students design a guide giving advice about resisting racism for distribution in their community.

Discuss the messages the class would wish to convey.

For example:

  • No racism here -our school policy
  • What do I do if someone's behaviour is racist?
  • Ban racism
  • Where to seek support/ help if you've experienced racism
  • What is racism?

Ask students to think about:

  • the title of their guide;
  • the pictures and symbols to use;
  • the information to include;
  • communicating the message in a simple but attention-catching way;
  • contact organisations to refer to;
  • how to publicise and use guides;
  • get some existing posters/ leaflets/ guides and ask groups to discuss them and think about how effective they are (eg AFL Let's Kick Racism out of Football, Human Rights Commission, What? Me? A Racist? the European Commission comic included in these materials);
  • have students produce their guides.

Some examples of racist behaviour in a school context

  • Making fun of people's clothes or food.
  • Refusal to hold hands in circle games (younger students).
  • Making assumptions about a student's abilities or preferences based on their ethnicity or cultural background.
  • Teachers using examples that show stereotyped views of particular ethnic or cultural groups.
  • Causing students to participate in activities that conflict with their religious beliefs.
  • Using intimidating or offensive behaviour towards people from other cultural or ethnic groups. For example, threatening, stealing, spitting.
  • Ridiculing people's accents.
  • Bullying students from particular cultural or ethnic groups.
Steps in intercultural communication

Step 1: A state of ignoring differences, represented by attitudes such as 'our way is best'.

Step 2: A state of awareness of differences gained through intercultural contact, communication and observation: 'other people have different ways of doing things from us'.

Step 3: A state of tolerance, respecting the fact that 'they are different from us' but without attaching a value judgement.

Step 4: A state of accepting, valuing and using differences positively: 'let's work together in a mutually beneficial manner'.