„Learning past history for present and future-the Holocaust”, 2022 Mihail Kogălniceanu College, Focșani, Vrancea Teacher Diana Toader
Erasmus +Programme-Strategic Partnership No.2020-1-RO01-KA229-080403_1 European students responsible, motivated, intelligent emotionally and usefully-Liceul Tehnologic Costești, Argeș
What is discrimination in schools and how can we avoid it?
Discrimination can be described as treating somebody unfairly duet o their race, gender, sexual preferences, disability, or some other characteristic they cannot exactly change. Unfortunately, discrimination is still very common in educational institutions in the form of bullying or alienating somebody because they are different from the majority. However, since discrimination is a learned behaviour, the opposite-acceptance and the importance of equalitycan be learned as well. With that in mind, here are a few ways in which discrimination in education can be reduced. Increasing self-awareness The first step towards reducing discrimination in schools is teaching students self-awareness and self-reflection.They need to understand how our race, ethnicity , socio-economic status, gender and all the other non-changeable characteristics affect us individually. They need to understand what it means to be privileged and what it means to belong to marginalized groups that experience life in a completely different way. Hiring professional teachers In order to teach self-awareness properly, there need to be teachers with high cultural competence and leadership skillswho know how to teach their students about diversity and multiculturalism.Such teachers should know how to create different learning opportunities that would acknowledge all races and ethnicities, so students can get more familiar with social justice. They should address all social issues from race to sexuality in a thoughtful way- they should analyze the development of such issues through history, movements that managed to promote tolerance and the consequences of ignoring those issues. The thing is, bias very often comes from the lack of information and the lack of understanding. So, the more children know about discrimination, the less likely they are to discriminate. Of