What is the relationship between education and prejudice?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Research on education and prejudice considers special programs aimed at promotingmutual respect as well as what effect more formal schooling generally has on expressionsof bigotry.

Most research studies show that well-constructed programs have a positive effect onreducing prejudice, at least temporarily. The reduction is rarely as much as one might want, however. The difficulty is that a single program is insufficient to change lifelong habits, especially if little is done to reinforce the program's message once it ends. Persuasion to respect other groups does not operate in a clear field because, in their ordinary environments, people are still subjected to situations that promote prejudicial feelings. Children and adults are encouraged to laugh at Polish jokes and cheer for ateam named the Redskins. Black adolescents may be discouraged by peers from befriendinga White youth. All this undermines the effectiveness of prejudice-reduction programs.

Studies document that increased formal education, regardless of content, is associated with racial tolerance. Research data show that highly educated people are more likely to indicate respect and liking for groups different from themselves. Why should more education have this effect? It might promote a broader outlook and make a person less likely to endorse myths that sustain racial prejudice. Formal education teaches the importance of qualifying statements such as "even though they have lower test scores, you need to remember the neighborhoods from which they come." Education introducesone to the almost indefinite diversity of social groups and the need to question rigid categorizations, if not reject them altogether. Colleges increasingly include a graduation requirement that students complete a course that explores diversity ormulticulturalism. Another explanation is that education does not reduce intolerance but instead makes people more careful about revealing it. Formal education may simply instruct people in the appropriate responses. Despite the lack of a clear-cut explanation, either theory suggests that the continued trend toward a better-educated population will contribute to a reduction in overt prejudice.

However, college education may not reduce prejudice uniformly. For example, some White students might believe that minority students did not earn their admission into college. Students may feel threatened to see large groups of people of different racial and cultural backgrounds congregating and forming their own groups. Racist confrontations do occur outside the classroom and, even if they involve only a few individuals, the events will be followed by hundreds more. Therefore, some aspects of the college experience may only foster "we" and "they" attitudes.