DOES CONTACT REALLY MATTER? EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF
2. Framework
Teaching otherness and diversity is not only an intellectual task or a question of acquiring knowledge; it is also about changing behaviors and attitudes. As a conceptual framework, it makes sense to rely on work done on prejudice and PR, Allport’s theory of contact (1954), and transformative learning (Mezirow, 2001).
2.1. Prejudices and professional representations
“[P]rejudices and discriminatory behaviours are not innate but acquired, and their acquisition mainly takes places through the dominant public discourse” (van Dijk, 2005, p. 1, free translation).
Prejudices include both a cognitive and an affective dimension. These two dimensions are not entirely independent (see Eagly & Chaiken, 1993) and they may interact with each other (see Mackie & Hamilton, 1993). Cognitive dimensions of prejudice are commonly represented as one’s perceptions, judgments, and beliefs about a group (see Ostrom, Skowronski, & Nowak, 1994). In contrast, affective dimensions of prejudice are generally based on one’s feelings and emotional responses to a group (see Smith, 1993). In accordance with this bipartite conceptualization of prejudice, some scholars suggest that a combination of cognitive and affective approaches to educational interventions is necessary (Herek, 1987; Sears, 1997).
Neither scientific nor common knowledge, professional representations (PR) are personal views of one’s (future) profession and its reality, bearing upon prominent objects such as context, professional tasks, colleagues and themselves as well as interpersonal relationships (Blin, 1997). PR originate both from one’s personal history and from the professional community’s dominant discourse (ibid., 1997). As such, PR stem from various encounters, exchanges, learning situations, observations, and tasks or actions performed. These experiences can be intellectual, emotional or both at the same time. Looking at their constituents, it would, therefore, be pertinent to resort to a combination of cognitive and affective approaches to work on PR.
2.2. Teaching otherness and diversity
On the one hand, Allport’s contact hypothesis (1954) poses that, if the appropriate conditions are present, the more one gets in contact with victimized or stigmatized people, the more their prejudice tends to disappear. Moreover, “[r]ecent studies suggest that Contact Theory is successful in bringing about more positive attitudes towards others [and] reducing prejudice (Center for Social Relations, 2013). For example, the contact hypothesis has proven to be effective in predicting more favourable attitudes and alleviating prejudice directed toward homosexuals (Herek, 1987; Herek & Glunt's, 1993) and Muslims (Novotny & Polonsky; 2011; Savelkoul, Scheepers, Tolsma, & Hagendoorn, 2011). Other researchers have also found that perception and attitude toward outgroup members can significantly be enhanced following contact with a single outgroup member (Wolsko, Park, Judd, & Bachelor, 2003).
On the other hand, the Transformational Learning Theory (Mezirow, 1991, 2000) postulates that transformational learning occurs through critical self-reflection and that for new schemas or ways of thinking to emerge, it is necessary for people to assess or reassess their values, beliefs, and assumptions.
A transformation in the way one sees and understands the world will likely occur in response to an externally imposed disorienting dilemma (ibid., 1991). These disorienting dilemmas can be critical life events, new life experiences, eye-opening discussions, efforts to know or understand a different culture, etc. Yet, transformative learning cannot be achieved by simply making learners aware or by prompting them to experience a disorienting dilemma: it is necessary to involve them by having them critically reflect on their experience and critique their established ways of thinking and behaving.
In sum, both the cognitive and the affective dimensions of preconceived ideas should be addressed for a change to be observed in one’s thinking and attitude. In order to teach diversity and openness to otherness, educational professionalizing training should comprise a set of different strategies and tasks articulated to work on students’ preconceived ideas and feelings, to prompt contact with stigmatized clienteles, as well as to exploit critical self-reflection for a change in one’s perception and understanding of others.
3. Methodology
In order to study the impact of contact on PR and prejudices, we explore the results of two studies done on the impacts of the Method of Cognitive Activation (MCA), a three-step, cognitive-affective tool (Boucher & Gosselin, 2010). In line with the theory of contact and the principles of active learning, MCA works from the emergence of one’s preconceived ideas to cognitively deconstruct and emotionally challenge these ideas through contacts with targeted stigmatized or victimized clienteles. We relied on MCA to teach diversity to future teachers (study 1) and to future
police officers (study 2). The two studies reported here hypothesized that future professionals held preconceived ideas – known and unknown to them – about different clienteles they would eventually interact with in their future career, and that these ideas would change after encounters with these clienteles. Due to the smaller number of participants in study 1, an open-ended pre and post questionnaire was used to survey student teachers’ PR; a pre and post Q-sort questionnaire on prejudice was administered to the future police officers. Pre and post results were respectively compared for both groups; variations in global results were studied afterwards to evaluate the effect of contact on PR and prejudice.
3.1. Study 1 – Two variations on the Method of cognitive activation of prejudice
In order to better prepare second language (L2) teachers, the Ministère des Loisirs et du Sport (MELS) requires that Québec universities train L2 student teachers (ST) to be ready to teach different clienteles such as adults, special needs students, very young language learners, intensive English groups, etc. Since teacher training has to be long enough to produce positive and favourable results (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001) – which is not easy to do in already well-loaded teacher training programs – we experimented the two following variations of MCA (Boucher & Gosselin, 2010) to teach L2 ST about these clienteles. In Variation 1, ST first answered an open-ended questionnaire, which worked as an exercise for the emergence of ST’s PR. Then, they academically learned about the different clienteles through readings, a needs analysis task, and in-class discussions. At the end of the semester, ST retook the open-ended questionnaire, which was then used as a cognitive reconstruction task. That is, Variation 1 exclusively taught ST bearing upon cognitive strategies. In Variation 2, ST would answer the same questionnaires and academically study the targeted L2 clienteles (see Variation 1 above) and undergo a brief (one-hour) teaching experience with each of them. That is, Variation 2 taught ST resorting to cognitive strategies as well as resorting to mandatory contact with the studied L2 clienteles, which includes a relational component and, consequently, an emotional dimension. Except for the one-hour teaching experience in Variation 2, ST from both groups were taught exactly the same content, using the same material and teaching methodology, by the same teacher. The emergence and cognitive reconstruction open-ended exercises worked as pre and post questionnaires for study 1. They were administered to 21 ST registered in the Variations on Normal Classroom Teaching1 course during the 2012 and 2013 fall semesters. Changes in ST’s PR was operationalized in terms of feelings and attitude toward teaching two less frequently taught L2 clienteles: very young L2 learners and adults. A qualitative evaluation of the variations in PR was performed and results were compared in terms of ST’s professional representations vis-à-vis the two L2 clienteles studied.
3.2. Study 2
At the cégep2 level, the Police Technology Program identifies two competencies that must be developed for a professional intervention with stigmatized, victimized, or frequently prejudiced clienteles:
1) competency 009B – To interact with distinctive clienteles, and 2) competency 009H – To interact with clienteles belonging to different cultural and ethnic communities (Gouvernement du Québec, 2005). The research question for study 2 was the following: “Can the Method of cognitive activation help Police Technology Programs teach diversity and otherness?” As compared to how the witness groups were taught, MCA distinguished itself by its systematic, didactical sequence (prejudice emergence – emotional deactivation – cognitive reconstruction) as well as by the number of mandatory contacts with clienteles studied (students in the experimental group met about three times more people from more varied and different clienteles and communities) (Gazaille, Boucher, & Gosselin, 2014). A pre and post questionnaire on prejudice was administered to 146 future police officers (nexperimental = 29 and nwitness = 117) from three different establishments. The questionnaire was inspired from Yang and Montgomery’s Q study of attitudes toward diversity (2013) and comprised a total of 50 questions. Pre-test and post-test means were compared to determine the impact of the method on participants’ prejudices.
1Variations on Normal Classroom Teaching is a compulsory intensive course in the Bachelor of Second Language Teaching offered at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Québec, Canada). Its purpose “is to introduce students to teaching English as second or a foreign language in situations other than regular classroom situations. […] such as teaching ESL to children with special needs, English for Special Purposes (ESP), adult education, immersion” (UQTR, 2014).
2CEGEP is an acronym for Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel, known officially in English as a “General and Vocational College”. It refers to the public post-secondary education collegiate institutions exclusive to the education system in the province of Quebec in Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cégep
CEGEPs offer two-year pre-university and three-year technical programs. College education normally follows the fifth year of the secondary cycle.
4. Findings
The following tables report the effects of contact with distinctive clienteles and varied communities on future police officers’ (table 1) and ST’s (table 2) preconceived ideas.
Table 1. Effects of the Method of cognitive activation on future police officers’ prejudices
Group Pre-post average differences p
Experimental -0,15 .03
Witness +0,19 .001
Table 1 illustrates that future police officers reported less prejudice toward distinctive clienteles and different ethnic communities while witness groups reported holding more. The differences in pre/post averages were significant for both groups. Both experimental and witness groups underwent academic study or cognitive-oriented learning of the clienteles studied in class, a major difference in the teaching strategies used lying in the greater number and variety of contacts with outgroup members encountered by students in the MCA group. Thus, even though the MCA students were taught following a more systematic didactical sequence, it can be put forward that contact contributed to the decrease observed in the experimental group’s level prejudice.
Table 2. Effects of the “with contact” and the “with no contact” variations of the Method of cognitive activation on future second language teachers’ self-reported feelings toward teaching two less frequently taught L2 clienteles
Clienteles
Very young L2 learners Adult Education (ESP) Increase No effects Decrease Increase No
effects Decrease With contact
(n = 7) (/14) 2 (4) 2 (4) 3 (6) 2 (4) 3 (6) 2 (4)
No contact
(n = 14) 8 2 4 5 2 5
Both Variation 1 and Variation 2 groups reported gaining knowledge about the two clienteles studied. Yet, group 2 ST, i.e. those who experienced contact with the L2 clienteles studied, proportionally reported feeling a little less comfortable to teach these clienteles. It is worth noting, though, that a closer look at these results had revealed that ST who had reported being more positive toward a given L2 clientele at the beginning of the semester also expressed more positive feelings and attitude toward it after the one-hour teaching experience (Gazaille, Boucher, & Gosselin, 2014). The same tendency was observed with ST who had expressed negative feelings toward teaching a given L2 clientele. Indeed, ST who would have expressed negative feelings toward teaching an L2 clientele at the beginning of the semester would report even more negative feelings toward the same clientele (ibid., 2014).
In sum, our results lead us to suggest that contact does not have the same effect on PR as it does on prejudice. Indeed, contrary to results with future police officers, it looks as if contact would reinforce some ST’s professional representations, positive or negative.
5. Conclusions
The purpose of this paper was to provide insights on the influence of contact on prejudices and PR and to show the first results of an educational tool, MCA, aimed to improve the teaching-learning of diversity and otherness. Results support that contact has an influence on both prejudice and PR. Yet, a one-hour long interactive encounter with one outgroup member seems to have had more effects on prejudice than a one-hour long professional intervention with a group. In other words, the effect of contact on prejudices and on PR would follow a different pattern of action. Post hoc comparison of the two studies referred herein comprises a number of limits and, consequently, our results need to be interpreted with care. Yet, in line with our results, it can be advanced that MCA shows potential for working on prejudice in post-secondary professionalizing programs. It is can also be suggested that professionalizing training programs adapt their teaching strategies and activities depending on the type of preconceived ideas they address.
References
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books
Boucher, J.-N., & Gosselin, L. (2010, June). Agir dans le respect des différences. La méthode d’activation cognitive. Paper presented at the 30e Colloque de l’AQPC, Savoirs et pratiques : un tandem gagnant, Sherbrooke, Canada.
CDPDJ (2011). Racial Profiling and Systemic Discrimination of Racialized Youth. Report on the Consultation on Racial Profiling and its Consequences. Québec: Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse.
Contact Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2014, from Conventry University, Center for Social Relation Web site: http://www.cohesion institute.org.uk/Resources/Toolkits/InterculturalDialogue/
ConceptualFramework/LiteratureReview/ContactTheory
Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Suk Yoon, K. (2001). What Makes Professional Development Effective? Results from a National Sample of Teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 915-945
Gazaille, M., Boucher, J.-N., & Gosselin, L. (2014, June). Teaching Otherness in Postsecondary Professionalizing Programs: A Pilot Study in Police Technology. Paper presented at the 2014 WEI International Multidisciplinary Academic Conference, Budapest, Hungary. Retrieved from http://www.west eastinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Mariane-Gazaille.pdf
Herek, G. M. (1987). The instrumentality of attitudes: Toward a neofunctional theory. Journal of Social Issues, 42, 99-114.
Herek, G. M., & Glunt, E. K. (1993). Interpersonal contact and heterosexuals’ attitudes toward gay men:
Results from a national survey. Journal of Sex Research, 30, 239-244.
Mezirow, J. (1991): Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Mezirow, J. (2000). Leaming to think like an adult: Core concepts of transformational leaming. In J.
Mezirow and Associates (Eds.), Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 3-34). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Novotny, J., & Polonsky, F. (2011): The Level of Knowledge about Islam and Perception of Islam among Czech and Slovak University Students: does Ignorance Determine Subjective Attitudes? Sociologia, 43, 6, 674-696.
Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., Storm, M. D., Sawyer, B. E., Pianta, R. C., & LaParo, K. M. (2006). The Teacher Belief Q-Sort: A measure of teachers’ priorities in relation to disciplinary practices, teaching practices, and beliefs about children. Journal of School Psychology, 44, 141–165
Savelkoul, M., Scheepers, P., Tolsma, J., and Hagendoorn, L. (2011). Anti-Muslim Attitudes in The Netherlands: Tests of Contradictory Hypotheses Derived from Ethnic Competition Theory and Intergroup Contact Theory. European Sociological Review, 27(6), 741-758.
Sears, J. (1997). Thinking critically/intervening effectively about heterosexism and homophobia: A twenty-five-year research retrospective. In J. Sears & W. Williams (Eds.), Overcoming heterosexism and homophobia: Strategies that work (pp. 13-48). New York: Columbia University Press.
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. (2014). Répertoire des cours. Retrieved February 17, 2015, from https://oraprdnt.uqtr.uquebec.ca/pls/public/couw001?owa_sigle=PDG1037