Glossary Writing Assignment
In order to conduct a more detailed analysis of the new terms from the Glossary I have chosen social identity, stereotype, and pre-prejudice as the new terms that I want to understand better. According to Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010) social identity is a membership to groups which is defined by a society and possesses several advantages and disadvantages attached to them. I have read interesting article written by Senior (2013) who states the social identity that a boy or girl obtained in his/her high school impacts significantly the way how he/she will behave and will look like in the adulthood. Senior (2013) underlines that for the majority of adults, the adolescent years have a privileged place in their memories. The researchers have titled this phenomenon in quantifiable degree – “reminiscence bump”. This means that memories that are related to the emotions and situations experienced during the period between 15 and 25 years are mostly retained. Therefore, the self-perception of the adolescent influenced by the impact of high schools peers, attaching to particular social group (“losers”, “handsome”, “perfectionists” etc), other external environment influences is decisive in forming the self-awareness in the adult years.
The similar thoughts are expressed by Barker (2013). He points out that a particular social identity in the high school has the determining role in the way whether the adult will be successful in the future. The majority of children during high school years put all the efforts to be popular. Thus, being the member of social group who includes powerful, popular, extremely successful students is the core goal that later will transform in pursuing the same goal in the adult life. A skill of navigating through the challenges in the high school both in academic as well as personal relationships defines how proficient the adolescent will be in his/her future reactions to the external environment.
Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010) report that pre-prejudice is formed when children having little understanding pay close attention to the opinions of people who are important in their life. These opinions create their perception of human similarities and differences. As a result, children learn stereotypes and incorrect ideas. They start to have wrong attitude towards different human dimensions such as racial identity, sexual orientation, economic class, abilities/disabilities, and culture. Children notice subtle cues; they formulate ideas based on the emotional stances demonstrated by adults. Moreover, children tend to draw conclusions based on what powerful adults in their life do not express openly. Such pre-prejudice can be addressed early and not be transformed into the prejudice if adults and teachers will pay sufficient attention to the problem.
When analyzing the “stereotype” concept, Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010) states stereotype is the generalization that is oversimplified and leads to the derogatory implications for a person. Duczeminski (2015) analyzes the impact of stereotyping on the high school students. Duczeminski (2015) argues “all minority and lower class students face the extra battle of succeeding in school, while trying to break out …
