ITEM 7 (Elaborated response to issued raised) Essay

ITEM 7 (Elaborated response to issued raised) - Essay Example g been vitiating the social atmosphere without ever being identified as a problem that is essentially different both in nature and potential than the interpersonal problem that racism is generally viewed as by intelligentsia across the world. The author has painstakingly described how United Kingdom has long viewed racism to be essentially an interpersonal problem or at the most a problem between two or more groups that perceive the each other as adversaries and the primary reason for some long standing social malaise that happens to adversely affect the agitated group. Since this problem is entrenched between individuals, a possible solution to this problem has always been thought of in terms of influencing interpersonal behaviors through changing perceptions in the minds of ethnic majority about minority stereotypes. (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) However, the leaders of the society and successive governments in Great Britain acknowledged the fact that these misconceptions had become deeply entrenched in the minds of adversarial ethnic groups. Thus, the best way to rid the society of such pernicious prejudices, the governments thought, would be to introduce a school curriculum that would educate school going children in the age group of 5 – 11 about their duties and responsibilities as citizens of a multi-ethnic country. (Ryan, 2003) There have been a series of education policies that attempted to educate, or rather, enlighten the future citizens about their responsibilities and duties both towards the country and towards fellow citizens. (Banks, Multicultural education: Historical development, dimensions, and practice, 2004) The first concerted attempts to educate school going children about duties and responsibilities of a contributing citizen began in early 1990s when ‘cross cultural themes’ were introduced in the school curriculum specifically to make young would be citizens aware of what their responsibilities shall be as they grow up to be adults. These