The subtle prejudice in the classroom: incorporating intercultural education through EFL

Abstract

[eng] The presence of migrant students in the classrooms of Majorca has been steadily increasing since the beginning of the 2000s, making them a real and significant part of schools. Although there have been efforts to create several protocols and programs to facilitate the integration of this profile of students, these have been proven to be rooted in prejudices, but mostly, they fail to recognize the cultural background as well as the identities of these students. An important part of this problem is the lack of awareness of subtle prejudice and how these are rooted in the collective imagination regarding migrants. Considering that, generally, people have problems to identify these, it is expected that some of the prejudice and the discrimination are well-present in the classrooms. The research and analysis of this piece of work aims to take a deeper look on how this issue in the city center of Palma. In order to do this, two questionnaires were conducted: one among high school teachers of a school in the city center of Palma, and another among former students of migrant origin. The results hint that the subtle prejudice is well alive in the classroom, and evidences the proportion of this problem, pointing at a structural problem rather than an individual attitude. Furthermore, it shows there seems to be an underlying problem of associating ‘integration’ with ‘assimilation’ and it impacts the way migrant students perceive themselves. It is hoped that this research draws attention to an important topic as well as it is hoped it helps in the development of a critical view on the current policies and methodologies regarding migrant students. For this purpose, several proposals based on the principles of intercultural education have been elaborated, with a special emphasis on how, through the EFL classroom, it is possible to help national and migrant students understand better the issues of identity and migration.