Impact of a short story on the perceptions of racism and sexism in primary students

Abstract

Discrimination due to ethnicity, culture and sex is still present in our society and the three are often interconnected. The school is a fundamental place to educate in the competences in interculturality and equality among sexes. The objective of this study is to verify if a short story written ad hoc can be considered a useful didactic resource to work all discriminations. A case study is presented in which the perceptions of a group of students about racism and gender equality have been identified through the application of a questionnaire, before and after a classroom intervention using the short story. The sample was composed by 111 students from 3rd to 6th grade of primary education (8-12 years). The results indicate that the participants modified their perceptions and improved their ideas on non-discrimination in the two areas, without significant differences between the sexes. The didactic interest of the narration used and its novelty as an integrating text of several values and contents is discussed. The need to train teachers to be competent in teaching intercultural and gender skills is claimed.