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Children Speak About Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In The Classroom: Lessons For Teachers, Cinzia Pica-Smith

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

In this article, the author discusses her research on children's perspectives of interracial and interethnic friendships in a multiethnic school and highlights children's voices on these intergroup friendships. Schools are important spaces in which social and cultural competencies necessary to the formation of intergroup friendships may be supported (Zirkel, 2008). Schools provide settings in which children learn about themselves and other children, adults, and the society in which they live. Steinitz & Solomon (1989) describe schools as "sites of identity," places where "young people draw conclusions about what sort of people they are, what society has in store for them, …