A preliminary study on the impact of History lessons focusing on Race, pseudo-

science and Science with regard to current Race and identity awareness among
pupils. Marj Brown, Roedean School, Johannesburg, South Africagroup. We also
included a guest speaker, an expert in Scientific racism in archaeology. One
teacher taught all lessons, to ensure consistency, four times per week for four and
a half hours. At the end of September, following the lessons on Eugenics and Social
Darwinism we conducted another survey using the same ten statements, pertaining to
race and identity. The survey was administered on Google classroom. Materials (and
apparatus) Lesson plans including: • Information on Science, pseudo-science and Race
(History notes andonline information) . • Guest speaker. • Online questionnaires (pre-
and post-intervention) on Google classroomwith 5/10 questions reversed on the 5-
point Likert scale (negative wording) . LIMITATIONS• Due to the nature of the study
the intervention group is likely to have had a The independent variable ‘History
lessons on Science, pseudo-science and Race’ very different set of interests,
attitudes and priorities to girls who have notwas defined by creating two
conditions: elected to study history. Therefore, there was an existing bias.
PURPOSE OF THE INVESTIGATIONRace and identity is a big issue in South Africa
amongst school children. Although Apartheid ended twenty-four years ago, there are
still racial tensions and these are reflected across class. History as a curriculum
subject is not compulsory for South African students, though there are widespread
proposals for it to become
so. This study seeks to assess the impact of an intervention in the shape of
Historical teaching on race, pseudo-science and science with History girls, using
non-History girls (i. e. those who do not elect to study History) as a control
group. The issue of personal identity will be explored with regards to how much
girls perceive their identity as being defined by race. THE RESEARCH DESIGNA
matched pairs design with a pre- and post-measure was carried out. – IV Level 1
(control) : normal lessons – not including History – IV Level 2 (intervention) :
lesson on race and science• There are girls within the History group and Non-
History group who may have selected Biology as a subject. Biology girls may have
done race and science too, but only from a perspective of genetics, without any
discussion of the History of pseudo-scientific racism, rather just the scientific
project of the human genome. • There is a bias in the sample due to the intervention
group having selected history, therefore potentially being pre-disposed to the
material. This was mitigated to some extent by analysing the changes in scores
between intervention and control rather than the actual scores themselves. • The
study is specific to a private school for girls in South Africa. Therefore,
applicability of results to the wider population should be done with caution. The
school has participants from different races and the pupils come from South Africa
and different parts of Africa. RESULTSGain scores were first calculated pre- and
post-test results (Figure 2) . A one-tailed Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated that
the intervention had a significant (p = . 001) very large positive effect on pupil
progress (r = 0. 75, CI (95%) = 0. 67 – 0. 81) compared to the control condition [d =
2. 28]. Figure 1. Research DesignCase-matching and randomisationPre-testPre-testPost-
testPost-test Participant groupControl – DV1 Questionnaire on identity and race.
A questionnaire consisting of ten statements with options on a scale of 1-5 was
used as the pre- and post-measure. Hypothesis: Girls who have debated race and
science in History develop a stronger personal identity independent of race. METHODS
Participants, sample size and randomisation80 girls were selected to take part in
the study (40 control and 40 intervention) . The participants were case-matched
controlling for age, race, nationality and being class-mates at Roedean. They were
then randomly allocated to the control or intervention. ProceduresAt the beginning
of September (following the pre-test) , we taught Science, pseudo-science and Race,
to grade 10 History pupils in the interventionFigure 2. Pre-and post-test score for
the case-matched control and intervention groups50. 0040. 0030. 0020. 00Intervention
Control Intervention Pre-testPost-test
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCHThe intervention had a positive
effect on most pupils in the study, with the exception of one pupil whose score
remained constant. It was also noteworthy that the scores of 43. 8% of pupils in the
control condition declined during the treatment period in the absence of the
intervention suggesting that, not only may the intervention be useful in improving
perceptions of race and identity, but that it could also prevent declining
perception without intervention. A further study may wish to look at the effect on
boys and/or use a larger sample size to validate the findings. Race and identity
score