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Article
Reducing attitudes of prejudice and discrimination through literature: A quasi-experiment on the upper key-stage 2 students of the British schools in Karachi, Pakistan
Intercultural Education
  • Munir Lalani, Aga Khan University
  • Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta, Aga Khan University
Publication Date
1-1-2019
Document Type
Article
Abstract

This study aims to explore the efficacy of literature relating to Anne Frank to reduce children’s attitudes of prejudice and discrimination with respect to specific dimensions, including ethnicity and race, religion and gender. A quasi-experiment was employed with pre-post control design. The sample consisted of 100 students of the upper key-stage 2 (UKS2) level, recruited from the two British schools in Karachi. These schools represented an Experimental Group (EG) and a matched Comparison Group (CG). A research instrument titled ‘Muggles world of differences’ (MWD) was developed and validated. It was administered on CG and EG, both before and after intervention. The intervention plan ‘Reading of Young Anne’s Literature’ (ROYAL) was developed based on selected readings from Anne Frank related literature (AFL). Intervention was provided to EG, while CG studied similar concepts using a more standard method. Results of the pretest revealed a high level of prejudice and discrimination in both the EG and CG, with no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the overall scores, as well as in the specific content domains. However, the post-test of the two groups revealed that the students in the EG had outperformed their CG counterparts in overall MWD scores, as well as in specific content domains. The difference was found to be significant (p < 0.05) with the large effect size (r = −0.63). Results support the efficacy of teaching Anne Frank related literature in reducing attitudes of prejudice and discrimination.

Citation Information
Munir Lalani and Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta. "Reducing attitudes of prejudice and discrimination through literature: A quasi-experiment on the upper key-stage 2 students of the British schools in Karachi, Pakistan" Intercultural Education Vol. 30 Iss. 1 (2019) p. 83 - 100
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/sadia_bhutta/22/