|Inspired by the impact of the Everyday Racism mobile app to encourage positive behavioural change among adults, we’ve embarked upon the challenging task of reducing the incidences of racism among children.Kids Together Now is an app that aims to promote positive peer relationships among students, which enhances their academic outcomes and improves physical and mental health outcomes.|
It also provides primary school teachers with a stronger understanding of racism and other forms of exclusion from a child’s perspective, which helps teachers to more confidently identify and address racism in the classroom.
The app is designed as a one-term classroom tool to teach students aged 8 to 10 years old how to identify and challenge non race-based and race-based exclusion.
Students will play through one storyline each week in class over a period of 8 weeks. Each storyline provides a hypothetical situation where social exclusion may occur, such as in the playground, at the beach, or during sporting activities. By providing a framework of scenarios for students to work through, the app acts as an intervention to address prejudice and stereotypes during a critical period for children’s personal development.
An important part of the effectiveness for the app to serve as a means to reduce prejudice is the in-class conversation and dialogue that immediately follows the playing of the app. We have created a series of Lesson Plans in PDF format, to help teachers facilitate meaningful discussions in the classroom. Together, the app and Lesson Plans will assist teachers in meeting the Intercultural Understanding capabilities within the Australian Curriculum.
The Kids Together Now app is available for use on any device with a browser and internet connection, including iPads and desktop computers.
|For Teachers||For Parents|
|Teachers can access the Lesson Plans and app using these links:|
Thanks to our funders, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, BMW Group and the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, All Together Now has been able to produce this app so that it can be made freely available for Australian teachers.
However, the Kids Together Now project has ongoing technical costs.
Please make a donation to help us keep this app running. We suggest a minimum donation of $50 per class, however you are free to choose your donation amount. Donations over $2 are tax-deductible. Please make a donation using your credit card or PayPal account.
|Parents can guide their child/ren through the app for school assignments, or general learning about racism.|
School is the predominant location for racism to occur among children, with the majority of perpetrators being other students[i]. 67% of secondary students surveyed in Victoria who had experienced racism had that experience at school[ii].
In Australia, callers’ response data from the national Kids Helpline reveals that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and students from language backgrounds other than English were much more likely to experience bullying at school than other students.
Social science and public health research has linked racism to various morbidities, especially relating to mental health[iii].
The app’s focus is on children aged 8-10 years old, because:
Professor Melanie Killen [xi] also points to the necessity of a multi-method approach for intervention to reduce prejudice in the childhood years, which necessarily relies on innovative techniques reflecting social media used by children today.
With regards to teachers, a recent NSW study found that only half of classroom teachers had undertaken professional learning around incorporating anti-racism strategies into lessons, with 20% not having taken any professional learning in the area of multiculturalism. 60% of teachers agreed that implementing anti-racism strategies are effective for fostering cultural inclusiveness in school. Of all the teachers surveyed, over 50% agreed that racism is a problem in schools [xii].
Kids Together Now has been produced with academic rigour, with the lead academic team comprising Professor Melanie Killen, University of Maryland (USA), Professor Fiona White, The University of Sydney (Australia), and Dr Naomi Priest, Australian National University (Australia).
The multi-disciplinary team behind Kids Together Now will be evaluating the social impact of the app and teacher Lesson Plans.
We expect to achieve the following primary outcomes during the course of this project:
As the social impacts of this project become apparent through various data collection methods and academic analysis, the results will be posted on this web page.
Teachers from all over the world are welcome to use this resource, however some scenes may not be culturally appropriate for students in your country, or you may wish to have a version of the app in a language other than English.
If you would like to work with All Together Now to produce a version of this app for students in your country, please contact us.
[i] Centre for Multicultural Youth, 2014, “Everyday Reality: Racism and Young People”.
[ii] Mansouri, F. & Jenkins, L., 2010, “Schools as sites of race relations and intercultural tension”, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 35:7, pp 93-108.
[iii] Priest, N. et al., 2014, “Experiences of Racism, Racial/Ethnic Attitudes, Motivated Fairness and Mental Health Outcomes Among Primary and Secondary School Students”, Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
[iv] Johnson, P. J. & Aboud, F. E., 2013, “Modifying ethnic attitudes in young children: the impact of communicator race and message strength”, International Journal of Behavioural Development, 37:182.
[v] Killen, M., Mulvey, K.L., & Hitti, A. (2013). Social exclusion: A developmental
intergroup perspective. Child Development, 84, 772-790.
[vi] Rutland, A., & Killen, M. (2015). A developmental science approach to reducing prejudice and social exclusion: Intergroup processes, social-cognitive development, and moral reasoning. Social Issues and Policy Review, 9, 121-154.
[vii] Brown, C. S. & Bigler, R. S., 2005, “Children’s Perceptions of Discrimination: A Developmental Model”, Child Development, 76:3, pp 533-553.
[viii] Killen, M., Mulvey, K.L., & Hitti, A. (2013). Social exclusion: A developmental
intergroup perspective. Child Development, 84, 772-790.
[ix] Raabe, T. & Beelman, A., 2007, “Development of ethnic, racial, and national prejudice in childhood and adolescence. A multinational meta-analysis of age differences”, Child Development, 82:6, pp 1715-1737.
[x] Rutland, A., & Killen, M. (2015). A developmental science approach to reducing prejudice and social exclusion: Intergroup processes, social-cognitive development, and moral reasoning. Social Issues and Policy Review, 9, 121-154.
[xi] Rutland, A., & Killen, M. (2015). A developmental science approach to reducing prejudice and social exclusion: Intergroup processes, social-cognitive development, and moral reasoning. Social Issues and Policy Review, 9, 121-154.
[xii] Watkins, M., Lean, G., Noble, G., Dunn, K. (2013), “Rethinking Multiculturalism, Reassessing Multicultural Education”, Project Report Number 1, University of Western Sydney, NSW Department of Education and Communities and NSW Institute of Teachers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]