The role of Educational System in Creating Positive Image of the „Others“

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of research, whose main objective was to determine whether and how the education system affects the acceptance of a positive image of “others” and the breaking prejudices of others nations. The research was conducted at Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. The sample included students of the Department for Pedagogy and Andragogy. The research had next four tasks: 1. To determine what images of the "others" student have, 2. To determine students assessment of the impact of the education system in creating a positive image of “other” nations, 3. To determine whether there is a correlation between educational characteristics of students and their image of “others”, 4. To determine whether there is a correlation between educational characteristics of students and students assess of the impact of the education system in the prejudices of others. The subjects assessed 7 nations by means of 12 attribute pairs. We studied the images on the following nations: Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, FYROM-s, Romanians, Turks, and Croatians. Also, we examined the role of the educational system in breaking down the following prejudices about others: avarice, dishonest, cowardice, coldness, aggressive, dirty, betrayal, sloth, inhospitable, primitive, strife, nationalists. The collected data indicate a tendency that students have a slightly more positive picture of the FYROM-s, Greeks and Turks than of other nations. The results also show that students recognize the power of the education system in the breaking prejudices of other peoples.