Closing the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’: The role of perspective taking and empathy in Reconciliation Education

Challenging prejudices held by school students is imperative, as children and youth are all too often shaped by the intergroup tensions they observe. In a classroom action research study it was first seen that not some but all the Grade 8 (12-14 year old) Australian school students—of who the majority were white and influenced by wider social discourse, initially held prejudices toward Aboriginal Australians. This paper looks at how students developed more positive attitudes toward Aboriginal people as they attempted to take their perspectives and empathise with them. It explores the potential role of Reconciliation Education in having students drop prejudices and start to see another group of people more positively.