Agencia Brasil
Sao Paulo, Brazil – Research among 501 public schools from all over the country based on interviews with over 18.5 thousand students, fathers, mothers, principals, teachers and school staff, reveals that 99.3% of those people demonstrate some kind prejudice: ethno-racial, social-economic, towards persons with disabilities, gender, sexual orientation or territory. The study, unveiled today (17), in Sao Paulo, and pioneer in Brazil, was carried out in order to subsidize a plan of actions that will turn school into an environment that promotes diversity and respect to differences.
According to the research “Prejudice and Discrimination in the School Environment”, done by Fundacao Instituto de Pesquisas Economicas (Fipe), and ordered by Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anisio Teixeira (Inep), 96.5% of the interviewed have prejudice against persons with disabilities, 94.2% have ethno-racial prejudice, 93.5% of gender, 91% of generation, 87.5% social-economic, 87.3% of sexual orientation and 75.95% territorial.
According to the study’s coordinator, Jose Afonso Mazzon, professor at the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting at Universidade de Sao Paulo (FEA-USP), the research found out that prejudice is disseminated by all actors in the school environment. “There isn’t somebody who is prejudicial about one area and is not to another. The majority have 5 areas of prejudice. The fact that every individual has prejudice is generalizing and alarming”, he said.
In terms of prejudice’s intensity, the study revealed that 38.2% have more prejudice against gender, and that it comes from men regarding women. As for generation (age), 37.9% have prejudice, mainly against aging citizens. The intensity of prejudicial attitude comes to its peak at 32.4%, in relation to persons with disability and 26.1% associated to sexual orientation, 25.1% in relation to socio-economic differences, 22.9% ethno-racial and 20.65% territorial.
The research indicates that 99.9% of people interviewed wants to keep distance from some social groups. Persons with intellectual disability suffer the most, with 98.9% with some level of social distance, followed by homosexuals, with 98.9%, gypsies (97.3%), persons with physical disability (96.2%), indigenous peoples (95.5%), poor people (94.9%), persons living in the outskirts or slums (94.6%), persons living in rural areas (91.1%) and black persons (90.9%).
According to the Director of Studies and Follow Up of the Secretary of Diversity of the Education Ministry, Daniel Chimenez, the results of the study will be analyzed in detail once the Ministry already showed preoccupation with the issue and the need to improve school environment and broaden actions to promote respect to diversity.
“In the Ministry of Education there are already some initiatives, but we need to improve, deepen and broaden this kind of approach, maybe even with a course that reflects all these themes and tackles it with an integrated approach, he said.”
From: Agencia Brasil
http://www.agenciabrasil.gov.br/noticias/2009/06/17/materia.2009-06-17.8057908621/view