ISJ November 2017: How Can Education Reduce Prejudice in the 21st Century?

Conrad Hughes

Abstract:

In the complex 21st Century world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity and paradox, teaching young people to approach other people and situations in a reflective, self-aware and critically-minded fashion is a central educational goal. This is ever-more important in a world that is viewing escalating social tensions, resource scarcity and demographic change of an unprecedented a scale. A mistake international schools can make is to think that they are contributing to a less prejudiced world by virtue of their diversity. It takes much more than a heterogeneous make up of students and staff.