Understanding and harnessing intergroup contact in educational contexts

Abstract

Prejudice is a pervasive problem that affects each and every one of us. Understanding how to reduce prejudice and promote better outcomes for both individuals and societies at large is an ambitious but essential task. For decades, social psychologists have theorized about and evaluated approaches to achieve just that, and there is one that stands out from the rest: facilitating intergroup contact, that is, (positive) interactions between members of different groups. Questions remain, however, about how and where good quality (meaningful and cooperative) interactions can be promoted in the face of societal division, and whether such interactions can foster social equality. In this paper, we argue for the importance of educational contexts as sites where future generations encounter the opportunity to interact with, or at the very least learn about, people who are different from them. We first outline social psychological research on the nature and effects of having frequent and good quality contact with people who are different from us, demonstrating evidence from education settings globally. We then provide a series of recommendations for schools and teachers on how to reduce prejudice in the classroom in both the presence and absence of difference.