Indicators of social acceptance and rejection in a group of teachers in training: the hidden face of prejudice

Abstract

The indicators of social acceptance and rejection are essential for the study of group phenomena. They are the ones that cause a person to be socially accepted or neglected. This study investigated what are the indicators of social acceptance and rejection in a group of 42 pedagogy students of the Federal University of Santa Maria. This context was chosen because this is where the future teachers develop their training and face similarities and differences in several respects. The technique of “opposite election” was used to collect the data, viz., the students were instructed to secretly vote for whom they would choose and whom they would not choose to do a group work with and to justify their choices. The criteria of acceptance observed had to do with friendship and affinity (# = 25; 48%), responsibility (# = 13; 22%), intelligence (# = 08; 14%) and with the same average of occurrence, ability solve problems and creativity (# = 04; 8%), to be a humble person and not interrupt colleagues’ ideas (# = 04; 8%). The criteria of social rejection were related to the difficulty to accept opinions / to relate with others (# = 19; 38%), lack of affinity (# = 15; 30%), perfectionism and wheedling (# = 14; 28%), superficiality and irresponsibility (# = 02; 4%). On the basis of these data it can be said that this is the profile of people who unconsciously try not to live with differences. The social exclusion in this group was strongly connected to stigmatization and prejudice, with consequences both at group and individual level. It seems obvious to say that education has the intrinsic task of critique, which leads to reflection, which is the only factor capable of changing the lack of consciousness that produces stereotypes. However, it seems that this task is not being realized in the training of these future teachers; hence the need for profound changes in teacher training.

Key words: teacher training, group phenomena, indicators of social rejection and acceptance.