Establishing prejudice-reducing and intergroup-enhancing school environments is crucial in the fight against prejudice for students of different origins. Not only do inclusive teaching methods ensure students treat each other with respect, but they also help eliminate stereotype-driven prejudice enhanced through other teaching approaches. For students from minority communities, there is a need for such approaches to provide students with tools for participating in social relations fairly, given that inclusive content and processes foster students' abilities in civil interaction (Riddle et al., 2021). Research has found that culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and cooperative learning are among the most effective strategies for improving inclusiveness. CRT focuses on the cultural sensitization of faculty members, incorporating culturally responsive content, fostering positive teacher-student relationships among learners (Abdalla & Moussa, 2024), and reducing prejudice among students (Morgan et al., 2020).

Extending CRT with SEL curricula also expands a culture that caters to children's social and emotional development and helps them attain an equitable education (Ryzin et al., 2020). Research suggests that professional development, community participation, and technology for intercultural communication improve educators' ability to develop multicultural classrooms that embrace cultural diversity and foster greater multicultural understanding (Eden et al., 2024). Scholarly evidence reveals that when students engage in critical discussions on identity, the learning environment becomes a space where students welcome diversity and work to dismantle structural barriers (Nagda & Gurin, 2007). Through relevant education that promotes critical thinking and social engagement, students can assume an active role, advocating for equity and social justice (Uthman, 2023). Teachers are critical in providing diverse content, modeling inclusive attitudes and behaviors, and promoting intercultural competence (concordance = 0.90) (Booker & Campbell-Whatley, 2018).

Other strategies include project-based learning, diverse literature, and media education, which provide ways for students to explore social issues, express diverse perspectives, and develop intercultural sensitivity. For example, literature enables students to embrace diversity and work with people from other backgrounds (Ntoulia, 2022). Additionally, reading works by underrepresented authors gives learners the opportunity to think about social issues and appreciate their identities in a democratic society (Posada et al., 2011). Media literacy provides students with skills that help them analyze and deconstruct biased information and further strengthen their concepts of diversity and equity (Bozda? et al., 2022). In this way, such integrative approaches help educators create a learning environment to reduce prejudice, enhance intergroup relations, and build students' sense of responsible, inclusive citizenship).

The present study aimed to explore school-based interventions that effectively reduce prejudice and promote intergroup relations. Among the methods described in the literature, the following were identified as promising. According to Gonzalez and Kokozos (2019), intergroup dialogue promotes understanding and reduces hostility among students from diverse backgrounds. One cooperative learning technique that reduces the distance between African Americans and Whites is the Jigsaw method (Aronson & Thibodeau, 2006). Vicarious, extended and imagined contact are effective and adaptable strategies for reducing educationally related prejudice (Stathi, 2017). Some effective prejudice-reduction interventions include social cognitive training, cooperative learning, and liberation psychology, as ecological theory helps analyze interactions among factors influencing prejudice and its reduction (McKown, 2005). These approaches provide educators with valuable resources for correcting stigmatized behaviors) and creating positive school intergroup relationships.

Statement of the Problem

Prejudice and different types of discrimination are the main causes of violence that affect students' learning. Discrimination often stems not from group humiliation, which reflects antipathy and hostility towards other groups, but from favorite groups, which show positivity towards their own group. Positive intergroup relationships are critical to good academic performance, with this in mind, work will reduce school-level bias and improve intergroup relationships using different approaches from teachers. This study is conducted to examine the psychological correlation involved in intergroup bias and conflict.

What are the factors that create prejudice among students at the school level belonging from different, psychological and social backgrounds? These factors define varied teaching strategies as a way of enhancing intergroup relations. First, they highlight the importance of social perception and cognition in intergroup contact. Second, they explore how members of the socially privileged and the socially deprived groups respond differently to their teachers at the school level. Third, they describe how a teacher can minimize such prejudice by adopting various teaching strategies that emphasize the promotion of positive intergroup relations at relatively prejudiced schools.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to reduce prejudice and improve intergroup relations of the students at the school level, and to analyze the factors that affect prejudice at the school level. And analyze which approaches are helpful for teachers in reducing prejudice.

1. To measure the prejudice level and improve intergroup relations of the students at the school level.

2. To analyze the factors that affect prejudice.

3. To find out the approaches that are helpful in reducing prejudice at the school level

Research Questions

1. What is the prejudice level, and how can the intergroup relations of the students at the school level be improved?

2. What are the factors that affect prejudice?

3. What are the approaches that are helpful for teachers in reducing prejudice at the school level?

Significance of the Study

1. This work will be helpful for the teachers to know about the level of prejudice at the school level.

2. This work will be useful in reducing negative attitudes among students at the school level.

3. This work will be helpful in developing positive intergroup relationships at the school level.

4. This research will be useful for students to achieve good academic results by solving discrimination problems through different teaching approaches.

5. This work will be useful for teachers to maintain a violent-free atmosphere in the school.

6. This work will also be useful in identifying the actual factors that are the real cause of students' negative behavior at the school level.

Delimitation

The study was delimited to the secondary schools of three tehsils i.e. Dunyapur, Kehror Pacca, and Lodhran.

Previous research has concluded that 'the most important factor in social tolerance is the degree to which children recognize different races', but relationships were high for all races. Studies show that discrimination sometimes stems from group privileges and includes a positive attitude toward one's own group, which indicates hatred or opposition to other groups compared to group humiliation (Greenwald & Pettigrew, 2014).

At the global level, group choice (e.g., giving more positive traits to our own social group) and alienation from the group may differ at first (attributing more negative traits to a social group to which we do not belong) In addition, negative attitudes are multifaceted in nature and typically to attribute negative traits such as rudeness or hostility to members outside the group), is divided into an emotional component (e.g., loving them less) and a behavioral component (e.g., showing negative behaviors such as social isolation). Different negative thinking for group members consists of different structures, they have common negative effects for group members. Recent social development research has examined bias in the context of the development of intergroup relations in accordance with a wide range of different operations. This has resulted in, for example, the recognition of importance, and it has been argued that cognitive and social abilities such as classification skills and perspective perceive the development of social or spiritual personality as an important contribution to intergroup friendships (Beelman & Heinman, 2014).

Discrimination is harmful actions towards others (Brown, 2010). Discriminative behaviors depend on low discrimination (e.g. avoiding someone) to high discrimination (e.g. physical punishment) depending on the situational knowledge about the motives of others (Brown, 2010). Previous literature shows clearly that prejudice and other forms of negative same-group member behaviors are not just constrained to adulthood, but it is started from early childhood to give favor to their own special ethnic group (Levy & Killen, 2008)

Social categorization based on social practical skills is very versatile and depends on men's thinking, memory, and social functioning, but this is very difficult to change prejudice based on cognitive and motivational levels such types of discrimination can only be controlled by improving intergroup relations of the students (Dovidio, 2018).

Student-focused approach technique is one in which educators follow a student-focused approach to help their learners shift their perceptions of the environment or interpretations of the phenomena they are studying. Students are seen as needing to develop their own skills, so the teacher needs to concentrate on what the teacher has to do. In the teaching-learning example, students do so. It is believed that a student-focused approach is important because it is the students who have to rebuild their awareness to develop a new worldview or conception. The teacher knows that he/she cannot express a new worldview or conception. They are considered pedagogical devices important for facilitating classroom interaction with regard to (csazar et al.,2018). As well as the learning that students carry into the class. In addition, it is possible to apply questioning strategies to produce context knowledge of drama elements, such as circumstances, character types, or dramatic themes. Understanding these elements will make the involvement and engagement of learners more relevant in drama activities (Savira & Laksmiwati, 2017).

The study, "A Study of Reducing Prejudice and Improving Intergroup Relations Among School Students Through Different Teaching Approaches," adopted the descriptive research design to determine the level of prejudice among school students and the effectiveness of different teaching approaches to improve intergroup relations. According to Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2017), descriptive research enables detailed illumination and systematic depiction of prevailing issues or phenomena, thereby providing a foundational framework for qualitative or quantitative interpretation in research (Nenty, 2009).

The study population encompassed all public high schools in the Lodhran district; however, due to time and financial constraints, data collection was confined to secondary schools within the district's three tehsils: It will stretch from Kehroor Pakka to Lodhran and Dunya Pur. Out of this population, the researcher chose 215 students through a random sampling technique that encompassed selected schools.

A structured questionnaire was developed to measure prejudice, intergroup relations, and factors influencing prejudice among students. This instrument consisted of a five-point Likert scale of 35 closed-ended items and two questions in a structured, open-ended manner. Respondents provided basic demographics, including gender, name of the school, and type of school to which they belong. The questionnaire elicited information on prejudice, intergroup relations, and teaching methods that can reduce prejudice. To ensure content validity, the questionnaire was pilot-tested on 20 students, and five items were finally dumped after consultation with the research supervisor. The tool's validity was ascertained by completing Cronbach's alpha value of 0.834, thus verifying internal consistency.

Following the researcher's visits to individual schools within the Lodhran district, face-to-face administration of questionnaires was intended to describe the research to the participants briefly and to assist in completing the questionnaires by explaining the purpose and items that could confuse the participants. Responses were fed into the Statistical Package after proper coding for the Social Science version (SPSS) for analysis. Descriptive data analysis for closed items entailed the computation of frequencies, percentages, and means for each item. At the same time, the responses from open-ended questions were used to generate emerging themes for a more holistic appraisal of prejudice and intergroup relations in a school setup.

Statistical Analysis

Table 2 shows that 37.1 percent were male respondents and 62.9 percent were female. It shows that 36.2 percent of respondents belong to rural areas whereas 63.8 belongs to urban areas. It shows that 15.5 percent of respondents belong to the 9th class where whereas 84.5 percent belong to the 10th class.

The overall results of students' perceptions of the different statements concerned with prejudice, intergroup relations, and teaching approaches that reduce prejudice and promote mandatory diversity are summarized in Table 2 above. Mean scores above the midpoint of the scale above 4.0 reflect the students' positive attitude or perception of cooperative learning, respect for students' opinions, the kindness of teachers, and fairness (e.g., "Teachers treat all students equally, mean = 4.73; S.D. = 0.836). These responses imply that cooperative learning and a nonaggressive teacher demeanor are perceived to create interpersonal harmony and conflict reduction.

On the other hand, lower mean scores, near 2.0, for statements like 'I feel uncomfortable to sit with students from a different ethnic group' and 'I feel discomfort to sit with my disabled classmate' have been observed, where the mean value is as low as 1.76, SD 1.257. Items like "I prefer to make friends of my sect" received low means (2.66), showing low endorsement of self-segregation tendencies.

The items referring to discomfort given discrimination, like anger from discrimination based on color/height (mean 2.78, S.D. 1.648), show students' concern about discrimination, stressing its emotional aspect. In aggregate, the table shows that students are highly accepting of diversity and widely approve of supportive teaching practices; however, at times, they may experience minor personal distress in intergroup contacts, which may be mitigated with extra learning measures.

Open Ended Questions:

At Least one Reason for Conflict in the Class

§ Nearly 40% of respondents reported that religious discussions in the class are the reason for conflict, that teachers should teach the students in a positive way, and that they should give respect to each other. Nearly 40%respondents reported that teacher absenteeism creates the opportunity for conflicts. Nearly 60% of respondents reported that teacher favoritism is the cause of conflict in the class. Nearly thirty percent of respondents show any type of discriminative behavior of the other fellows becomes the reason for conflict.

§ Mostly students reported that negative attitudes of the class fellows become the reason for conflict. Some students also reported that grouping between high achievers towards low achievers is also the cause of conflict.

§ Suggestions to improve intergroup relations of the students at the school level

Suggestions from the Students to Improve Intergroup Relations are

§ Restrictions about religious discussions

§ Group learning

§ Positive teaching toward others' culture

§ Teacher kindness

§ Biasness free education

§ Respect students’ point of view

§ Teacher appreciation towards low achievers

§ Cross-group friendships produce respect for each other

§ Teacher's grip on the class

§ Teachers should control the discriminative behavior of the students by delivering sympathetic lectures.

§ Group activity to promote friendship among students by the teachers

§ Teachers should try to develop tolerance to improve the rationing of students.

The study's findings align closely with the research objectives: measuring prejudice, teaching prejudice features, and examining prejudice-eradicating teaching methods. In line with the study by Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2017) on the significance of inclusion learning, it can also be shown that CL and CRT are related to enhanced levels of ST and PIR in this study. CRT, in particular, focuses on cultural appreciation and respect. Consequently, research has revealed that it can lower stereotype-based bias by raising the students' appreciation of cultural worth (Abdalla & Moussa, 2024; Morgan et al., 2020).

The negative findings in favoritism and discomfort in cross-group interaction seen in this study are also seen in other studies conducted by Ryzin et al. Pre-service and in-service teacher education regarding integration are crucial since prior research shows that teachers who receive training in the framework are more capable of developing a cohesive classroom environment. Moreover, Van Ryzin et al. (2020) pointed out other benefits of cooperative learning, proving that group and interactive approaches decrease aggression and increase everyone's appreciation.

It also supports the need for student participation to be effective for inclusiveness. Some interview responses from the students confirmed that they appreciate their teachers' encouragement of cross-group friendship, which aligns with the contact hypothesis that structural intergroup contact erases prejudice (Stathi, 2017). The evidence points out that, for equal learning for students of color, Leeward and Gayle, and multicultural groups, educational institutions must provide an environment that intends to welcome and embrace all students.

According to this study, cooperative learning and CRT can reduce prejudice and improve positive intergroup relations at the school level. Hearing the multicultural attitudes of students, prejudices are manifested only about several social indicators, mainly gender, caste, and religious affiliation. This is why the study looks at the implications of such biases and ways to counter them, most apparent by having teacher training overcome biases. Teachers also have a function as students are sensitive to fair treatment, as evidenced by what teachers do in the classroom or school. Hence, the deliberate integration of these approaches into school curricula is highly desirable to avoid conflicts among students in the social community.

Professional Development for Teachers: To respond to biases, they should thus provide relentless CPD for teachers and support the use of inclusive and culturally safe teaching approaches in schools.

Enhanced Cooperative Learning Opportunities: Schools should use more cooperative learning and group work because theory postulates that these practices increase intergroup relations and decrease prejudice.

Classroom Interventions for Cross-Group Friendships: To avoid developing stereotyped opinions about other social groups, people should be encouraged to organize structured programs that bring together people from different castes, tribes, etc.

Curriculum Revisions for Inclusivity: Studentship of SEL and CRT in the classroom can also teach students empathy towards minority groups and respect for different opinions.

Parental and Community Involvement: Separately, schools should engage families and community members in supporting diverse attitudes at home so that children receive pro-diversity messages 24/7.

These recommendations were made to ensure that every learning institution respects every student and provides a learning environment that will transform the learners into responsible citizens who embrace pluralism.