What do childrens experiences of race tell us about the social Essay

What do childrens experiences of race tell us about the social psychology of racism Discuss with reference to empirical research on race and multiculture - Essay Example Through the process of identifying certain biological human characteristics, the population of the world started being classified into separate groups. Miles refers to this process as racialisation and defines it as one which characterizes meanings â€Å"to particular biological features of human beings, as a result of which individuals may be assigned to or categorized into a general collectivity of persons reproducing itself biologically† (Miles, 1989). Research on children’s racialised thinking conventionally used numerous theoretical and interpretive paradigms that intended to explain the development of racial attitudes. Some of these models connected children’s racist beliefs to personality troubles and gave details of the appearance of prejudiced attitudes in relation to rigid cognition credited to strict parenting style (Adorno, 1950). Some recent researches put forward that children play a dynamic role in their own learning and expand knowledge through social interaction. Furthermore, children also have a certain amount of ability that permits them to understand process and express their needs and knowledge (Connolly, 1996). Thus children are not merely seen as submissive receivers of racist beliefs, but as vigorous agents who struggle to deal with conflicting information they obtain in relation to the racial ‘other’ so as to make sense of the social world around them. Because of this, they do not just imitate racist viewpoints to which they are exposed, but actively strive with their contingent and often opposing nature, while trying to make sense of their social world (Connolly, 1998b). Children establish their racialised notions of diversity and social relations within the specific framework of their daily experiences and that these experiences are socially planned, determined by social events that expand