Stereotyes

Field of application

Intercultural training

Resume / Brief description

Recognising stereotypes and differentiating between the two attitudes (judgement/recognition), recognising and questioning your own and others' perceptions and judgements. 

Target group

Students

Entrepreneurs

Colleagues of the same company or work team

Colleagues working in intercultural contexts

Professionals of different area

There are no limitations regarding group size. The ideal size is 15-25 participants from different countries.

Objectives

The activity has the objective

• To Recognise stereotypes and differentiate between the two attitudes judgement and recognition.
• To recognise and reflect on your own and others' perceptions and judgements.  

Materials

• Flipchart paper (one per nationality)
• Red and yellow post-it notes
• Signal (whistle, sound signal, etc.)
• Stopwatch

Time

• 45-60 minutes (10-15 minutes for filling out and sticking on the slips of paper)

Implementation - Guidelines

1.       Process

• Distribute red and yellow post-it notes to all participants.
• Encourage them to reflect on their own and foreign cultures (criteria).
• Consider which common stereotypes can be assigned to which culture (criterion).
• Tell each participant that he or she should note down at least three cultures and characteristics including their own.
• Clarify the difference between stereotyping and neutral perception.
• Describe and allocate the notes. Participants have 10 minutes to note down the stereotypes.
• After the time is up, a signal is given and the participants should present the notes on the corresponding flipchart papers.
• Participants go to the flipchart papers of their country of origin, reflect on it and prepare a short presentation (approx. 2 minutes).
• Presentation of the results.

2.       Debriefing

To debrief, you can reflect on the following questions:

• What was learned?
• How can I act differently in the future?

Additional format/references

Thiagarajan, S. (2006). Thiagi´s 100 Favorite Games. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.

Thiagarajan, S. (2016). Interaktive Trainingsmethoden: Thiagis Aktivitäten für berufliches, interkulturelles und politisches Lernen in Gruppen (3. Auflage.). Schwalbach: Wochenschau Verlag.

Thiagarajan, S., & van den Bergh, S. (2020). More Interactive Training Strategies for Improving Performance. Skript for the Course “Interactive Training Strategies”, 4-6 June 2020, Winterthur, Switzerland.