Lesson 05: Working to overcome stereotyping

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Overview:

This lesson focuses on a three-part research project to help students develop an understanding of the challenges inherent in changing attitudes and overcoming stereotypes as well as of the shared responsibility for bringing about those changes. To complete the project students first develop a questionnaire about present attitudes towards cultural, ethnic and religious groups. Each student then administers the questionnaire to ten other students and/or adults in order to gather data on commonly held attitudes about Muslims and other ethnic groups. As a class, students then discuss their collected data and extrapolate possible conclusions. Next students use the data to form a research question or thesis statement about combating stereotypes. Students then develop a preliminary list of references and resources to be used in the project. For the third part of the project, students develop a multi-media (text and visuals) presentation about combating stereotypes about Muslims. Finally students present their projects for peer review and evaluation.

Broad Understanding:

All people share in the responsibility for combating stereotyping of cultural, ethnic and religious groups.

Objectives:

Knowledge:

Students will be able to:

• describe ways to work with others to combat stereotyping


• explain ways in which knowledge can help combat stereotyping


• outline a positive action that will help overcome stereotyping of cultural, ethnic and religious groups

Skills:

Students will be able to:

• design a questionnaire to reveal present attitudes about cultural, ethnic and religious groups


• gather and analyze data


• use data to develop a research question or thesis statement about combating stereotypes


• design a multi-media project (text and visuals) intended to change attitudes about cultural, ethnic and religious groups

Attitudes:

Students will begin to:

• appreciate the challenges inherent in overcoming stereotyping


• recognize their own responsibility in working to change attitudes about cultural, ethnic and religious groups

Materials:

• internet access to http://www.moa.ubc.ca/spiritofislam/exhibit

Procedure:

Session One:

• Review with students the three sections of the PQR chart. Discuss questions that remain unanswered as well as ways in which their research may have altered their perceptions. Guide students to identify information on the chart that could be useful in helping people better understand Islam and Muslims.


• Remind students that the major assignment for this unit is a research project that focuses on overcoming stereotypes about Islam. This is to be a multi-media project, that is, one that combines both text and visuals.


• Advise them that there are four parts to the project: a questionnaire, a reference and resource list, preparation of their multi-media project about combating stereotypes about Muslims and the presentation of the project. Explain that projects will be peer reviewed as well as submitted for evaluation.


• Point out that since the project is intended to explore ways to change people's perceptions of Islam it is important to gather information about current attitudes toward Muslims. Explain that a questionnaire will provide data about some current perceptions in order to form a research question or thesis statement for the projects.


• Remind students that questions on a questionnaire should be phrased in such a way that people answering are not led to give particular answers. Explain that questions could be yes/no questions, open-ended questions or rating-scale questions. Point out that yes/no questions are often the simplest but may not provide enough information. Open-ended questions provide the most data but are often more difficult to analyze. Rating-scale questions may provide a broad range of data. The rating scale could be numerical (e.g., 1-5) or ordered (e.g., all the time, most of the time, sometimes or occasionally, hardly ever, never or a lot, quite a bit, some, not much, nothing). Questionnaires may include a combination of question types.


• Ask students to suggest possible questions they might present to other students or adults in order to uncover current perceptions about Islam. Guide students to propose questions that explore current knowledge, perceptions and attitudes and actions. Possible questions include:


1. Islam is a monotheistic religion (i.e., has only one god).
   agree / disagree


2. Islam is a religion practiced mostly in the Middle East.
   agree / disagree


3. On a scale of 1 to 5 (five being the highest) rate your knowledge about the religious practices of Muslims.


4. People of any nationality or ethnic background can become Muslims.
   agree / disagree


5. All Muslims practice their religion in the same way.
   agree / disagree


6. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the most) how important is it to understand and respect the religious practices of other cultural or ethnic groups?


7. I think people who immigrate to a new country should adopt the language, customs and religion of the host country.
   agree / disagree


8. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the most) how important is cultural diversity in creating a strong society.


9. I am involved with Muslims in social activities.
   all of the time / most of the time / sometimes / hardly ever / never


10. I think schools should teach students about religions.
    agree / disagree


11. I think is it okay to tell or laugh at jokes about other cultural or ethnic groups.
    all of the time / most of the time / sometimes / hardly ever / never


12. Knowledge of the beliefs and practices of other cultural, ethnic and religious groups is not particularly important when making up my mind about them. agree / disagree


13. Cultural, ethnic and religious groups should be encouraged to maintain their own identity.
    agree / disagree


14. I am comfortable with the religious and social customs of other cultural and ethnic groups.
    all of the time / most of the time / sometimes / hardly ever / never


15. Describe ways in which stereotyping of others might be overcome.


• You may choose to work with the whole class to develop a class list of questions that all students will ask or have students work in groups of three or four to develop their own questions. Alternatively, you may choose to present the above fifteen questions to students and, after discussion about the form and content, have students work in small groups to develop possible additional questions.


• Point out that the final ten to fifteen questions on the questionnaire will come from a preliminary list of about twenty questions. If you have chosen to have groups develop their own questionnaires you may want to have students exchange their questions for feedback as to the wording and the usefulness of the questions. You may also want to have students submit their questions for your feedback before they actually administer the questionnaire outside of the classroom.


• When groups have finalized their questions instruct each member of the group to make ten copies of the questions and administer the questionnaire to ten people outside of the class. Encourage students to include adults as well as other students in their data collection.

Session Two:

• Invite students to share the results of their questionnaires.


• Ask students to examine the results to look for connections or discrepancies in the answers that may help them in their analysis. For example, if people have disagreed with questions 1 and 4 from above and agreed questions 2 and 5, you know that there is a problem with misinformation, especially if they have also answered that they have a lot of information about Islam. Answers that people think that all cultural, ethnic and religious groups should be like the mainstream culture may indicate ethnocentricity. Answers that it is okay to laugh at jokes about other cultural or ethnic groups may indicate judgmental perceptions.


• Suggest that students categorize their answers by the kind of information they provide. As a whole class or in small groups invite students to suggest possible categories. Depending upon the questions asked, categories might include such things as misinformation, judgmental perceptions and ethnocentricity.


• Invite students to share their ideas.


• Ask students to suggest whether there are some questions that people may not have answered accurately but instead, given what they thought was the "correct" answer (e.g., (depending upon the data) #11 and 14). How might that affect the results? How might the size of the data sample be a factor in the results? Might the results have been different if a different sample group been surveyed (e.g., if all adults over 25 or over 40)? If the results indicate a lack of knowledge about Islam and other cultural, ethnic and religious groups, how might that be a factor in stereotyping?


• Instruct students to review the categories in order to identify some of the possible root causes of stereotyping indicated by their data. List them on the chalkboard.


• Remind students that their task is to develop a project that will help overcome stereotyping of Islam.


• Invite students to return to their groups to discuss the related categories and how stereotyping of Islam might be overcome. Instruct groups to develop a research question or thesis statement to provide a focus for their projects.


• You may wish to have students submit their research question or thesis statement for approval before progressing to the next step.

Session Three:

• When students have identified the research question or thesis statement for their projects, explain that the next step will be to develop a preliminary list of references and resources. Point out that their references and resources should support their research question or thesis statement and not simply be a list of books, articles and web sites. Point out also that this is a preliminary list and they will most likely add to the list as they work on their projects and some of the initial references may not be useful in the final project. Remind students that the MOA The Spirit of Islam web site is a good starting point but will not provide sufficient information for the final project.


• Remind students that the completed project is to be a multi-media presentation, one that combines text and visuals and, perhaps sound, in a creative way. Explain that it should include background information about Islam and Muslims, information about how Islam guides and influences the lives of its followers, data from their questionnaires, possible root causes of stereotyping, how lack of knowledge contributes to stereotyping and suggestions about possible ways to overcome stereotyping about Islam. Suggest that students consider combining a number of ways to present their projects (e.g., oral report, charts, pictures, video, music, taped interviews). Point out that simply "telling" or reading a written report will not be enough to get the message across. You may choose to set a time limit for each presentation.


• Before students begin the assignment, ask them to suggest what an excellent project might look like. As a class, develop criteria or share with students the following rubric (see also Handout at end of lesson). You may choose to assign a numerical value to each level (e.g., Misses the mark = 1, Satisfactory = 3, Excellent = 5). Explain that the rubric will be used for the peer review as well as the final evaluation.

Session Four:

• Before students present their projects, review the previously established criteria. Distribute one copy of Peer review for each presentation to each group. Point out that the Names blank identifies members of their group while the group presenting is named in the presentation blank. Explain that after each presentation and discussion, there will be a short break during which groups will develop appropriate feedback that will be helpful to each presenting group. Remind students to be specific in their feedback.


• Invite students to present their projects and allow time for class questions.

Evaluation:

• Assess students' ability to achieve the Knowledge and Skills objectives as well as their understanding of the broad understandings by using the Presentation assessment handout. You may choose to use the Peer review handout to provide additional written comments about specific learning objectives.

Handouts:

• Peer review - to be used by students to offer feedback about presentations


• Presentation assessment - rubric for assessing multi-media presentations

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