DIALOGUE ON CONTROVERSIAL THEMES AT SCHOOL: AWARENESS ABOUT INTERNALIZED OPINIONS AND PREJUDICES

Context: This abstract describes an ongoing study about dialogue on controversial themes at school. These results are the first preliminary results. Teachers in Brussels’ schools, with a pupil population that reflects the multicultural and diverse population in society, are often confronted with potential conflicts arising from differences in cultural and ethnic related values. [1] General themes related to diversity at school, that we assume to be facilitators in creating a mind shift to more tolerance, are often subject to discussion and therefore can be perceived as controversial themes, that might be difficult to discuss. [2,3] Researchers of this study hypothesize that a structured and well coached dialogue about controversial cases in school context, can reveal hidden prejudices that inhibit socio-cultural awareness. The aim of this study, is to detect characteristics that inhibit a nonviolent communication when it comes to controversial themes, and to tackle conflicts at school using an adequate dialogue style. Methods: Results of this study build upon data that are collected in a qualitative study design. Based upon results of a previous study and with the input of educational professionals (teachers, principals, mentors, pedagogical instructors) in focus groups, a dialogue and reflecting tool to coach school teams in handling controversial themes at school was developed, using controversial cases with guided questions to reflect on the situation. Data were collected in the period October – December 2019. Participants of the study are students in teacher training physical education (PE) (N=32; 18-23 years old). Participants reflected upon several controversial cases at school and were asked to use the guided questions to discuss the cases and conclude to conflict resolution actions (CRA’s). Data were then subject to content analysis. The words used in the CRA’s, were screened and analysed in order to determine underlying and unspoken feelings, emotions, opinions and thoughts. Results: After a guided reflection process on several cases, the answers reveal that the Eurocentric framework has a great influence on the way participants dealt with the conflict cases. Conclusions: Education in a super-diverse city needs professionals with ‘diversattude’. This includes empathy, respect, curiosity, openness and sociocultural awareness. [4] Awareness of its own prejudices and hidden assumptions is a fundamental step in facilitation dialogue about ethnic and cultural related controversies at school.

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