Guess who’s coming to dinner: an experimental investigation on primary and secondary school pupils’ social attitudes

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the attitudes of pupils ranging from late childhood to adolescence towards diversity expressed as disability, other gender and race in a context of full inclusion. For the study, two experiments were carried out asking a large sample (i.e. 764 + 160) of participants to choose a hypothetical classmate to share a series of different activities with. The hypothetical classmate could be chosen between: same gender pupil; other gender pupil; same gender pupil of the prototypical racial minority; same gender pupil using a wheelchair. In turn, activities included: an outdoor, highly motor demanding, game; an indoor board game; a purely social activity; a scholastic activity; and a gesture of solidarity and good-will. Results clearly demonstrate that pupils’ decisions are strongly modulated by the activity itself rather than by ethnic factors. Pupils aged 9–14 appear to have developed a finely tuned sense of ‘what works in which situations’. Accordingly, while a visible disability turns out to be very effective in gaining sympathy and eliciting pity, it results in a serious obstacle for the development of a close friendship between peers.

KEYWORDS:

• Social attitudes
• disability
• gender
• race
• inclusion

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the educational staff and the pupils of the schools that took part in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Notes on contributors

Lucia Donata Nepi has a degree in Humanities Studies and worked many years as a primary school teacher. At present she works as teacher supervisor at the School of Humanities and Education of the University of Firenze. Her research interests focus on inclusive education, in particular on the social participation of SEN students in regular schools.

Marta Ciappelli has a degree in Education and a qualification as special education teacher from the University of Firenze. At present, she works as primary school teacher at the ICS Rufina, Rufina (FI) – Italy.

Carlotta Rossi has a degree in Education and a qualification as special education teacher from the University of Firenze. At present, she works as primary school teacher at the ICS Marchese Lapo Niccolini, Ponsacco (PI) – Italy.

Francesco Viliani has a degree in Education and a qualification as special education teacher from the University of Firenze. At present, he works as primary school teacher at the ICS Rita Levi Montalcini, Campi Bisenzio (FI) – Italy.

Andrea Peru has a degree in Medicine, and a diploma in Neurology from the University of Parma, and a PhD in Neurosciences from the University of Verona. At present, is an associate professor at the University of Firenze. His research interests range from clinical and experimental neuropsychology to special needs education and inclusive education.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by MIUR, Italy (departmental grant).