Teachers and parents as a source of stereotype formation

Teachers and parents play an important role in developing and maintaining stereotype beliefs in children and youth, and therefore this paper discusses their role and importance for the development and manifestations of stereotypes in children. Authors' intention is to introduce the readers to the developmental prerequisites of stereotype formation in children and youth, to point out to the ways in which adults exert influence on children's understanding of stereotypes and to discover how stereotypes mediate in the interaction between teachers and parents. Studies imply that the development of stereotype beliefs in children is conditioned by developmental changes on the cognitive level and that the first indications of stereotypes occur in the third, that is, fourth year of life. The first sources of stereotype formation are parents, who, as a model for socialization, promote the social and cultural norms and express certain behavioral patterns which are then "imprinted" in the repertoire of child's behavior. Teachers present an important source of stereotypes, whether we are talking about their roles in carrying over the pattern of the dominant culture or we are dealing with the stereotypical perception of the pupils of different categories (such as, for example, ethnic background, gender). This paper also points out to the categories of pupils that are more sensitive to stereotypes in educational context.