| This study employs phenomenography as a research method to "map" children's conceptions, or prior knowledge, of ethnic diversity.;Phenomenographic interviews were conducted with 19 grade seven students from a rural school in New Brunswick, Canada. Individual interviews were structured around semi-projective stimuli meant to connect the interviewee to aspects about the concept under study.;Results indicate that the grade seven students interviewed had very limited prior knowledge about ethnic diversity. Even those whose thinking gravitated to the highest level of sophistication fell quite short of where Canadian, British and American curricular standards say they should be for their grade level. Findings from this study suggest that teachers need to take into account students' knowledge of ethnic diversity prior to planning instruction for them. Instruction should be focused on particular deficits in students' thinking about the concept and related to curricular expectations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
