Incidência de preconceito entre estudantes do ensino fundamental na cidade de Uberlândia-MG

Abstract

The occurrence of prejudice in school environments affects the learning process and the interaction between students and makes hostile an environment that should be welcoming and also focused on the development of citizenship. This paper aims to identify the incidence of prejudice among elementary school students from three public municipal and state schools located in Uberlândia – MG, Brazil. The study was conducted using quantitative and field research that employed a socioeconomic and a thematic questionnaires. Thirty-eight students from male and female genders participated in the study. The obtained results show that almost 2/3 of the participants have witnessed prejudice inside the school, with racism, fat shaming, and sexual prejudice being the three most mentioned types. Moreover, almost 1/3 of the participants admitted having practiced prejudice. The school spaces with the highest incidence of prejudice were listed by the participants as being the playground (during the interval), the classroom (even with the presence of the teacher) and at the school door. Information such as these can be used to promote pedagogical and management decisions that aim the reduction of prejudice in schools, thus creating better learning environments.