Attitudes, stereotypes and anti-discriminatory education: Developing themes from Sullivan

This paper acknowledges the importance of the issues that Sullivan (1998) r aises, but questions assumptions made about the nature of anti-discriminato ry practice and is critical of the way in which shifts in attitudes are int erpreted as evidence of further problematic discrimination. It suggests alt ernative interpretations for Sullivan's examples, and questions the concept ions of attitudes and the model of self presented in Sullivan's account of attitude change. The paper considers stereotyping as a cognitive process an d whether it is an inevitable, or invariable, phenomenon. It reviews the na ture and goals of anti-discriminatory education, contending that discrimina tion arises not from the holding of strong attitudes per se, but from the n ature of, and the consequences that follow from, particular attitudes. Fina lly, it makes recommendations for educators and provides suggestions for fu rther development of the anti- discriminatory perspective.