The effect of selected cultural and initiative activities on the attitude of first year students towards ethnicity in a multicultural institution

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:In 1994 the Durban College of Education, that used to be an all white Afrikaans-mediuminstitution, changed to a multicultural institution with Afrikaans and English as medium ofinstruction. The author, other lecturers and teachers of all races have not beeneducated to teach from a multicultural perspective and due to stereotyping andprejudices which were still dormant, a great need arose to address the cultural diversityof the college. This diversity lead to differences in culture, which lead to conflicts andmay even have been responsible for poor academic achievements.As a lecturer at the Durban College of Education, the author became interested inwhether selected initiative and cultural activities could foster a positive self-concept anda positive attitude towards other students of the same ethnic group, as well as towardsstudents of other ethnic groups. The author agreed with De Klerk and Labuschagne(1995) that cultural differences have a great impact on the life, personal developmentand academic achievements of the students at a multicultural institution of highereducation. The author also believes that students should be guided (Wasserman, 1997)in how to perceive themselves and other students of all ethnic groups. This will assistthem. to achieve a successful academic career (Greyling, 1997) without wrongperceptions, stereotyping and prejudices (Van der Walt, 1991).The subjects for this study (N=127) were all first year students at the Durban College ofEducation. The group was comprised of black students (n=24); white English speakingstudents (n=58); white Afrikaans-speaking students (n=34) and Indian students (n=11)(see table 3 page 43).A pre-test was administered to determine the initial status of the subjects. Anintervention programme followed and a post-test was administered directly after theintervention programme (see chapter 4). A follow-up test was administered threemonths later to determine the influence of the daily college routine on the self-conceptand attitude towards ethnicity of the subjects. A control group (N=30) also completedthe three questionnaires. The control group did not follow the intervention programme.Adolescent Sport Self-concept Scale of Smith (in Paterson 1991) and an ethnic attitudescale, was administered. The ethnic attitude scale was based on the ethnic attitudescales used by Paterson (1991) and Pretorius (1978). This ethnic attitude scale wasadapted to adhere to the needs of this study. The data were computerised; at-teststatistic and a Duncan's multiple range test were applied to determine if there weresignificant differences.By comparing the results of the experimental group with that of the control group, it wasevident that after the intervention programme, there was a significant positive change(p

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University