Research highlights problem with racial tolerance

Having classrooms with pupils from a range of backgrounds does not always boost tolerance, according to a study by the Institute of Education.

The new analysis based on data which is actually more than 10 years old suggests that white pupils may become “threatened as ethnic minority children achieve civic competence” – gaining the knowledge and skills they need to be fully part of the society they are living in. The study looked at the relationship between tolerance and ethnic diversity in England, Germany and Sweden, based on information collected from a large-scale study conducted in 1999 of 90,000 14-year-olds in 28 countries. The results show that in England, a 50 per cent increase in the “civic competence” of ethnic minority pupils led to a 20 per cent drop in the tolerance of white British pupils.

It concludes: “In England there is a negative relation between the average civic competence of minority ethnic children and the ethnic tolerance of their white classmates.

“In other words, the more competent minority ethnic children are in terms of their civic knowledge, skills and values, the less tolerant their white classmates are.”