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Abstract

This thesis reports on the effectiveness of an anti-racist training program implemented at secondary schools in Vancouver and Richmond in February and March of 1995. The program used Responding to Racism; a guide for High School Students, prepared by the author, with John Kehoe and Lily Yee. Training involved three hours of anti-racist role-play exercises from Responding to Racism. A pretest-posttest control group design was employed to measure: retention of given models for dealing with racist incidents, post-treatment levels of racism, and behavioral reactions during a staged racist incident. Ten social studies classes from two schools made up a sample population of 262 students. Following half-day workshops, three teachers carried out the program with a total of six classes of either grade 9 or 11 students. Four additional classes continued with regular curriculum to serve as the Control sample. The Cultural Diversity Scale (Kehoe, 1982, 1984), was given as a pretest to establish Control to Experimental group equivalency. A posttest Written Response to Racist Incidents instrument, used to measure knowledge of how to respond to a racist incident, found a significant positive difference between Experimental and Control groups, (t=(3.83) p.