Influence of the popular media on attitudes of pre-service primary school teachers in Spain towards refugees

María Belén San Pedro-Veledo, Carmen González González de Mesa
University of Oviedo, Spain
María Luisa Zagalaz Sánchez
University of Jaén, Spain

There are perceived economic and security concerns related to immigration and refugees among the population in many countries and the media sometimes convey an image of immigration and refugees as a social problem. It is therefore necessary to analyse that influence, especially in those who will have a direct relationship with the displaced, such as teachers. This study searched to determine the extent to which the frequency of use of different media influence attitudes towards refugees in 205 pre-service teachers, and to test whether attitudes related to cognitive factors influence affective attitudes towards refugees. A questionnaire has been used to measure the attitudes towards refugees in four dimensions: affective, economic labour, social, and immigration policy. The statistics used were descriptive analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of simple and multiple linear regressions. The results suggest that cognitive factors such as attitudes towards economic labour, social, and immigration policy predict affective attitudes towards refugees. Regarding the use of media as a source of information about the refugee situation, the study indicates a clear influence of the media on attitudes in pre-service teachers, with more positive attitudes among those who did not use or made little use of the media.
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Authors: María Belén San Pedro-Veledo is a lecturer in the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education at the University of Oviedo, Spain. She teaches in the masters degree in Research and Innovation in Early Childhood and Primary Education, and in the Degree in Primary Education Teaching. Website: https://portalinvestigacion.uniovi.es/investigadores/218371/detalle ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1038-5747 Email: pedromaria@uniovi.es Carmen González González de Mesa is a lecturer in the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education at the University of Oviedo, Spain. She teaches in the masters degree in Research and Innovation in Early Childhood and Primary Education, and in the Degree in Primary Education Teaching. Website: https://portalinvestigacion.uniovi.es/investigadores/219536/detalle ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8349-7494 Email: gmcarmen@uniovi.es María Luisa Zagalaz Sánchez is a Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences at the University of Jaín, Spain. She is a lecturer in the degree in Primary Education and in the masters degree in Teacher Training in Secondary Education. She also coordinates the PhD program in Didactic Innovation and Teacher Training. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6044-8569 Email: lzagalaz@ujaen.es Please cite as: San Pedro Veledo, M. B., González González de Mesa, C. & Zagalaz Sánchez, M. L. (2023). Influence of the popular media on attitudes of pre-service primary school teachers in Spain towards refugees. Issues in Educational Research, 33(4), 1548-1567. http://www.iier.org.au/iier33/san-pedro-veledo.pdf