What is “Different”? Intercultural Comparison between Preschool Children’s Perceptions of Different People: Sample of Poland-Tunisia-Turkey
Nalan Kuru Turaşlı *
Department of Elementary Education, Preschool Education Division, Faculty of Education, Bursa, Turkey.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
For many years, lots of different cultures have been together in the same school and classroom environments. Education community has always emphasized that peace and tolerance education should start in earlier ages. Therefore, necessary methods have been searched in recent years. The ability to consider differences such as richness constitutes the basis of peace and toleration. The aim of this research is to investigate factors affecting the “foreigner” perceptions of 5-6 year old children who live in different countries (Tunisia-Turkey-Poland) and to make an intercultural comparison study. Consequently, it has been discovered that elements affecting the perceptions of children on people living in different cultures are age, gender and some common points in preschool education periods.
Keywords: Early childhood, preschool, perception of different people, multicultural education.