Stereotypes and prejudices in pre-service physical education teachers towards immigrants

The purpose of this study was to find out which stereotypes prevail in future Physical Education (PE) teachers when asked about immigrant population and to see if within that stereotype, there are subtle or blatant racist attitudes, as well as egalitarian attitudes. A sample of 2524 volunteer pre-service Physical Education teachers (PPET) was used to participate in this study. A questionnaire on Racist Stereotypes in Initial Training of PE Teachers and a Subtle and Blatant Prejudice Scale were used. Descriptive, univariate and multivariate statistics were used to analyse the information gathered. The data showed PPET with a false tolerant stereotype, where the contextual variables gender and religious preference were crucial, since the boys respect girls, as well as Catholics regard non-believers or other religions, they are reflected less egalitarian stereotypes.