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What Is Jane Elliot's A Class Divided?

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Jane Elliot conducted a revolutionary experiment in1968 termed ‘A Class Divided’, in which she segregated her third graders; insisting that those with blue eyes were much more superior to those with brown eyes. On the second day of the experiment she switched the roles around and declared that those with brown eyes were better. This investigation was put together with the aim of educating her students about discrimination to a large extent; as Martin Luther King was assassinated the day before the experiment commenced and her students could not comprehend why a King would be murdered. As the experiment progressed some ethical guidelines were breached. The investigation did not consist of any withdrawal rights as it was the researcher’s class and so the researcher had control of the students remaining in the classroom. Deception also took place which was evident throughout the instigation as the researcher, Jane Elliot measured the students/participants intelligence based on the colour of their eyes; also providing those classed as ‘superior’, longer lunch breaks and privileges to the …show more content…

This is because when the experiment was conducted, the students felt worthless and helpless as those who were considered” greater” were acknowledged whilst the non-greater group were just degraded. This investigation gave the participants the opportunity to look back and reflect on prejudicial acts, learn from them and potentially make a change. Another positive factor of this experiment was that Jane Elliot selected an appropriate age group to collate the data/information. Selecting an older group of students or adults would have made the experiment less effective as the researcher would have had minimal to no authority on such a sample. Elliot also published the investigation in the end as an aid to educate others to learn more about

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