Values and Attitudes Orientation of Czech Teachers and Students Focusing on Accepting or Rejecting the Otherness of Cultural and Ethnic Minorities

This study examines the values orientation of Czech teachers and students and their attitudes towards various cultural and ethnic minorities in the Czech Republic. We believe that one of the key issues facing multicultural education is the transmission of stereotypes and prejudice among those involved in the educational process. One of the most important of our topics is also the educational process in relation to the socially disadvantaged, e.g. Roma children, children of foreigners and the like. From September 2014 to June 2015, we carried out an extensive research survey among students and teachers of primary and secondary schools in three Czech regions. The primary research objective was to provide a description of the attitudinal and values orientation of young students and their teachers towards different cultural or ethnic groups. Our expectations were confirmed in the case of a lower degree of tolerance of adolescents to the Roma minority compared to other ethnic or cultural minority groups; both the teachers and their students perceive coexistence of the majority with the Roma minority as problematic. In relation to multicultural education, we find it particularly concerning that teachers generally understand it as “learning about other cultures”, which is based on emphasizing differences rather than the presentation of what they have in common. As a consequence of such an understanding, the emphasis is placed only on formation of the cognitive dimension of attitudes. Such an approach can result in promoting a stereotypical mindset of students, instead of developing critical thinking.