Vorurteile und Erdkundeunterricht

One of the aims of geography teaching is the elimination of bias and prejudices against other peoples and minority groups. To achieve this aim it is not enough to correct textbooks by eliminating falsifications and distortions concerning other countries and their inhabitants, but it is necessary above all to get down to the roots fo such bias. The study presents a theoretical framework which allows to understand the origin and the existence of bias and prejudices and to eliminate them from geography teaching. Bias and prejudices are a special form of attitudes. These attitudes can te subdivided into three components, i.e. a cognitive one, a normative one and an affective one. Each of the three components can be the reason of a biased attitude. According to Katz biased attitudes have a „ knowledge" function, a ,,value-expressive" function and an ,,ego-defensive" function. The cause of the first one has to be found in a stereotyped conception of the world, the second one in a predominant nationalistic judgment and the last one in an authoritarian personality. The three functions are autonomous, but also interdependent (principle of consonance). prejudice-promoting qualities develop within each of these components at an early age already. School teaching undoubtedly contributes to the development of such qualities Geography teaching does so by -directly imparting stereotypes -imparting unreflected value judgments -excessively stressing facts -adopting principles of regionalism -imparting unreflected theoretical assumptions. Though the cognitive component is easily alterable, an intended alteration is made difficult by the „ principle of consonance" of the three components. Each attempt to alter an attitude should, therefore, start from this principle. Consequently, the attempt to eliminate false conceptions in teaching can only be successful if it is made step by step the more so as the attempt is made more difficult by the people or group threatened by prejudice developing defensive attitudes. L'enseignement de la géographie a aussi pour but d'éliminer des préjugés vis-à-vis d'autres peuples et des minorités. Pour atteindre de but, il ne suffit pas de corriger les manuels scolaires en les débarrassant de distorsions et de falsifications concernant d'autres pays et leurs habitants, mais il est indispensable de prendre le mal à sa racine. L'étude présente un cadre théorique permettant de comprendre l'origine et l'existence de préjugés et de les surmonter dans