Respect for all: Defining racism and prejudice

This activity was used with pupils in key stages 2, 3 and 4, years 6 to 11.

Aim

• To develop understanding of key terms and definitions about racism and prejudice, through the medium of sport.

Activity objectives

• To understand language relating to race and ethnicity.
• To develop debating skills that can be transferred to any social, personal or professional environment.

Activity description

A class of 30 pupils was divided into groups of five or six. Each group was given 10 cards containing questions, such as:

Racism is ..?
Institutional racism is ..?
Prejudice is ..?
Nationalism is ..?

Each group was also given a number of cards containing possible definitions for the terms and was asked to discuss how to match the terms and definitions. The teacher then revealed the correct answers and the class discussed the terms so that they were clear about their meanings and the differences between them.

Part 2: debating race and ethnicity in football

This activity involved assessing the reaction to Sven-Göran Eriksson's appointment as manager of the England football team.

Many people working within the sport and fans contacting phone-in programmes expressed their concern about a 'foreigner' managing the team. Of a total of 20 premier league managers, 16 made public comments regarding the appointment.

Working in small groups, the pupils were given cards detailing these comments. They were asked to match the individual comments to the terms and definitions created in part one (eg Nationalism is ..?; Prejudice is ..?; Discrimination is ..?).

Commentary

The pupils developed excellent debating, negotiating and rationalising skills while discussing a topic that interested them. They appreciated the complexities involved in confronting, challenging and verbalising cultural diversity issues.

Resources

The physical education schemes of work can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net