Inter-Ethnic Relations among Children at School: the perspectives of young people in Scotland

In the UK, policies and academic writings about inter-ethnic relations have witnessed many changes in recent decades, with a growing focus on the effects of different forms of racism and anti-racism. Opinions have been diverse on the extent to which both the majority and minority populations should respect and adapt to each other's traditions. Relatively little research has been undertaken on the experiences and perceptions of children. This article reports on findings from three linked studies which highlight the viewpoints of white and minority ethnic children as they made the transition to secondary schools. With a few exceptions, the children felt that their schools respected their religious practices and other customs. Most children of minority backgrounds had mixed friendship groups and the range of achievements, experiences and attitudes in relation to school were largely unrelated to ethnic background. Hardly any young people saw teachers as overtly racist, though small numbers believed teachers discriminated in favour of other groups. Peer racism was endemic and reported to be more frequent in secondary school than primary school. Teacher responses were often seen as inadequate.     

LEARNING TEST-WISENESS BY PROGRAMMED TEXTS1

High school seniors (84 males, 77 females) were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. One group received a programmed text designed to teach Ss to answer every item on an examination, whether or not the directions included a penalty for incorrect answers. The other group was administered a programmed text to teach certain selected aspects of test-wiseness. Each group served as the control group for the other. The following day all Ss were administered a measure of willingness to guess and a measure of test-wiseness. Two weeks later, all Ss received additional measures of willingness to guess and test-wiseness. Analysis of the data indicated the group that received the guessing program answered significantly more items than its control group (on both the immediate and delayed tests), even though there was a penalty for incorrect answers. In similar fashion, the group exposed to the test-wiseness program achieved significantly higher mean test-wiseness scores than its control group.