An investigation of third and fourth year students' experiences and attitudes about modern racism within an education faculty at a University in Gauteng

M.Ed.The study aims to investigate third and fourth year education students' experiences of and attitudes toward modern racism, in a university in Gauteng province, South Africa. The collection of data was from 262 participants (51.2% of the third and fourth year student count) using a questionnaire. Items were adapted to focus on modern racism, with symbolic racism theory as the primary point of departure. Secondary theories were also used to support this study, which include: race as a social construct, a systems perspective on racism, critical race theory, and social dominance theory. Data analysis involved the use of various statistical techniques to include: Principal Components Analysis (PCA); Bartlett's test of sphericity, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO); One-Way Anova; MANOVA; and the chi-square method. The cronbach-alpha reliability coefficient of 0.873 for section A of the questionnaire, and a reliability coefficient of 0.78 for section B, validates the research instrument. In addressing the research question, two hypotheses were constructed: (1) that research findings will indicate that there are significant differences in terms of student experiences of modern racism; and (2) that research findings will indicate that there are significant differences in terms of students' attitudes toward racial ideology, in terms of modern racism. Factor analysis revealed that respondents had the perception that modern racism had seldom been experienced by them within the previous 12 months, and results indicated neutrality. However, when subjecting these factors to further analysis, another factor surfaced, which had not formed part of the initial investigation, revealing that racial groups differed significantly with respect to both frequency of perceived discrimination based on skin colour and the perceived effects of affirmative action. Results indicate that respondents seldom experience subtle forms of racism based on skin colour, and probably occurred at least once in the previous 12 months. Results also indicate neutrality in terms of practices which could be explained by affirmative action policies