Development of national and social identity the dilemma of I and the other : inclusion or exclusion among a sample of children aged 8 to 12 years

Abstract EN

Objective: This paper aims at investigating all kinds of group behaviors such as solidarity within a group and discrimination against out-groups, as part of social identity processes.

In addi¬tion, this paper studies whether interaction happens with the out groups or not, and it investigates the first encounter model and tests whether an increased knowledge about the other with to¬lerance would lead to a reduction of prejudice.

Methodology: This paper uses the Social Identity theory with its three behavi¬or types.

A case study of “Safarni Program in Giza, Egypt” was applied on a group of Egyptian and migrant children whose ages ranged from 8 to 12 years.

Results: The results showed that the interaction between the groups (out groups) decreased the nega¬tive feelings and increased the positive ones, and they also in¬dicate that Safarni Program succeeded in achieving inclusion in the society by providing more knowledge about the other.

This resulted in less prejudice, which indicates that the first encounter model would succeed in the existence of tolerance and increased knowledge of the other.

Research limitation: shortage of trainers and study places hindered having the total number of children in one group.

Practical Applications: inclusion of the migrants in the Egyptian society.

Conclusion: few studies in the literature attempted to deal with national identity using interventions to sol¬ve exclusion problems especially in Egypt.