Formal education and Blatant‐subtle prejudice: Intercultural education and contact theory in French educational system

Abstract

AbstractAccording to the intercultural paradigm, prejudice reduction is a way of promoting positive interactions among people and preventing discriminatory behaviours. This paper focuses on the role of teacher interventions in reducing student prejudices. We carried out a quantitative survey, which was administered to middle and high school students in France, to identify the role played by individual, school and sociocultural variables on ‘flagrant’ and ‘subtle’ prejudices. The findings show that when students perceive that their teachers are discussing racism and discrimination during formal education, manifestations of both types of prejudice decline. In addition, this perceived engagement creates a multiplicative effect on intergroup contacts among students, and this is an important condition for decreasing prejudice. The study highlights the potential of formal education to deconstruct stereotypes and encourage interculturalism, even in a context which is quite hostile to any reference to cultural identities. It also underlines that intercultural practices can start at the micro level without any formal institutional support.