Media and the Others: Media Education in Multi-Ethnic Education

The article discusses how Belgian society has been growing increasingly intolerant of the growing immigrant communities and explores media education strategies for encouraging responsible citizenship and respect for diversity, especially among children.

The author's research concentrated on the question of how standards and values of a multi-cultural society crystallize at school. Both the attitudes of teachers as regulators of standards and the attitudes of pupils, as well as the use of audiovisual media within the class (technocratic view of media-education) were discussed. 728 teachers in various elementary schools in the Belgian province of Limburg answered a detailed standardised questionnaire on this theme.



Data illustrated that three out of ten teachers adopted a "critical and hardly positive attitude towards multi-cultural society. Teachers' opinions on 'minorities' did not appear to be negative but often indicated indifference and misjudgement of their own abilities with regard to the transfer of values." According to the research, these opinions are also determined by the composition of the school and the class within which the teacher operates. The more immigrant pupils per class, the more positive the teachers will be, and the stronger the increase in their commitment will be.

984 children between the ages of 8 and 12 answered (in writing and during group discussions) questions on their self-image, their opinions on and attitudes towards others, and their appreciation of other ethnic groups. The children’s opinions seemed to be closely related to their self-image and the opinions of the ingroup. The ingroup, i.e., “the Belgians”, was described in positive terms. The respondents, however, did reveal increased appreciation towards related groups and nationalities (e.g., French, English, German). These groups were considered not only “more similar”, but also better, happier and richer than unrelated groups (Chinese, Eskimos, blacks). Turks and Moroccans (the traditional immigrant groups) were more often described pejoratively (“poor”, “dirty”, “lazy” and “dumb”).

The sources of information used by children to form opinions about others were also assessed. The behaviour of family members and friends, but also education - and particularly the attitudes of teachers - seem to play an important role in the acceptance of others. However, stronger than the influence of family, friends and education seemed to be that of the media. The children indicate television as the main source of information for knowledge about and opinions on other groups and nationalities.

The other core question of the research was how intolerant attitudes could be counteracted. According to the author, the research results strongly defend media education within the context of the school. Media training at school, as an element of a vast social training project, may contribute to critical reflection and social responsibility. However, the author has found that media education has still failed to earn a place in school curriculum. A frequent misconception - that little can be learned from the media because, in the end, everyone
can understand television and other media
messages - is the basis of the “fuzzy” definition of
media education and the role that education must
play in this.