THE PERCEPTION OF DIVERSITY IN THE FIFTH GRADE OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ZASAVJE REGION

Na osnovnih šolah v Zasavju je opaziti multikulturnost, saj učenci izhajajo iz različnih socialnih okolij. Zato je bil namen diplomske naloge ugotoviti, kako učenci dojemajo različnost, katere oblike različnosti v oddelku prepoznavajo in koga na podlagi dojemanja različnosti najbolj odklanjajo. Hkrati nas je zanimalo, koliko učenci vedo o medsebojni strpnosti in diskriminaciji. V teoretičnem delu diplomskega dela smo najprej predstavili nekatere izmed socialnih kategorij, po katerih se učenci razlikujejo: družbeni položaj družine, rasno in etnično poreklo, religija, narodnost. Nato smo opisali izvor stereotipov in predsodkov ter kaj je diskriminacija. V zadnjem delu teoretičnega dela smo opisali izhodišča interkulturne pedagogike kot primeren odgovor na soočanje z multikulturnostjo v razredu in šolskem sistemu. V empiričnem delu diplomske naloge smo predstavili izsledke kvantitativne raziskave. Uporabljeni so bili anketni vprašalniki, ki jih je izpolnilo 104 učencev 5. razredov treh zasavskih osnovnih šol. Rezultati so pokazali, da se učenci ne glede na etnične, narodnostne, verske, ekonomske in statusne različnosti med seboj, večinoma dobro razumejo in da starši ne vplivajo na otrokovo izbiro prijatelja. Učenci imajo razvito empatijo, tako da bi bili pripravljeni pomagati učencu, ki je različen od njih. Ugotovili smo, da učenci 5. razredov najbolj odklanjajo nagajive učence in tiste, ki se slabo učijo, kar sta pokazatelja, ki ne govorita o katerem koli dojemanju različnosti na podlagi klasičnih parametrov socialnega ali kakšnega drugega statusa. Rezultati raziskave so pokazali, da se učenci 5. razredov osnovnih šol v Zasavju slabo zavedajo socialnih različnosti ter ne poznajo vsebine in pomena besed strpnost in diskriminacija.Due to the fact that children in Zasavje region come from various social environments, one can notice a high level of multiculturalism in elementary schools. Therefore, the main goal of this thesis was to explore how the pupils understand the diversity, which types of diversity they recognize and which children are being the most rejected on the basis of different understanding of the term. At the same time we were interested in how much pupils know about mutual tolerance and discrimination. The theoretical part of the thesis represents some of the social categories of the differentiation in children, such is social position of the family, racial an ethnical background, religion, and nationality. Later on, we described the origin of stereotypes and prejudices as well as the term discrimination. At the end of the theoretical part we described starting points of intercultural pedagogy as an answer to facing multiculturalism in the class and school system in general. The empirical part of the thesis represents the results of our quantitative research. We used the method of questionnaires, which were completed by 104 pupils of the 5th class in three elementary schools of Zasavje region. Results showed that pupils mostly get along well despite their different ethnic, national, religious, economic and social characteristics and that their parents do not affect the child\u27s choice of friends. Pupils are prepared to help someone that is different from them, which shows a high level of empathy. Our research also showed that the 5th grade pupils mostly reject disobedient children as well as the ones that have learning difficulties, which are the indicators that do not demonstrate just any kind of understanding of diversity on the basis of classical parameters of social or any other status. The results indicate that 5th grade pupils of elementary schools in Zasavje region have a poor awareness of social diversity and do not know the content and meaning of terms tolerance and discrimination