Resource created by the University of Leeds: ETHER project.
This resource is aimed at promoting constructive discussion around othering – the practice of recognising, and often labelling, someone as different from you. It deals with sensitive themes and needs careful planning to ensure that pupils are prepared to engage with the subject matter in respectful and open ways.
Please read the introductory chapter 'What is Othering' and consider the material provided in the Resources section, as well as those signposted in Supporting Links.
Curriculum Links
- KS4 PSHE: Relationships and Living in the Wider World
- KS4 Citizenship
Discussion Ideas
See individual chapters for discussion ideas specific to themes or media resources such as videos.
Activity Ideas
- Starter: Create a set of classroom rules around behaviour when discussing sensitive or difficult topics and issues. This could be done in pairs, then small groups and then as a whole class, so that each student is involved and crucially, agrees with the classroom rules.
- Listen to Parinita Shetty talking about her feelings of being uncomfortable
- Use this and other resources such as the Sentence Starters found in the Downloads section to help
- These rules should cover both how each student is going to behave towards other members of the class, and also about how they are going to respond to the process, both internally and externally (e.g. be open to new ideas, be prepared to change their mind). - Starter: Watch the video ‘All that we share’ or ‘Don’t put people in boxes’ (see ‘Supporting Links’)
- Ask the students how the experiment makes them feel
- Did anything surprise them?
- What will they learn from the experiment that they are going to try to keep in mind, going forward?
- A similar activity could be done with finding links between all the students in the class, with careful consideration of the questions asked.
- Or download the Class Bingo activity sheet for another way to highlight connections between members of the class. - Download the Pen Portraits activity. This activity is designed to help students to start thinking about and reflecting on our human tendency to have preconceptions of people, and how these preconceptions, if not challenged, can lead us to stereotyping and othering behaviour.
Music activities
- Ask the students to research the histories and cultural influences behind the type of music they listen to.
- Do they find anything surprising? For example, there are well established links between classical and heavy metal music - some people enjoy listening to both.
- Consider how the music industry has both enabled and prevented individuals who do not conform to societal ‘norms’ and may be labelled as ‘other’ from achieving success.