Page 166 - Vseživljenjsko učenje kot temelj trajnostne družbe

Maja Lebeničnik and Karmen Drljić

that a stronger growth mindset about mental illness is negatively linked to
prejudices. This outcome was attributed to the negative links between preju-
dice and social essentialism but also to blame, which is inconsistent with the
assumptions underlying the double-edged sword model. Moreover, the au-
thor also reported that the link was not consistent between conditions (i.e.
prejudice differed between obesity and mental illness) and differed with the
perception of the condition being more or less controllable. The relationship
between mindset and prejudices is not clear at that point.

Research Problem and Hypothesis
Ableism is a form of prejudice that manifests through stereotypes and sys-
temic discrimination, much like other prejudices. Nevertheless, the concep-
tual framework of ableism provides a useful lens through which to compre-
hend contemporary, covert biases against disabled individuals, particularly
in the context of educational systems that frequently serve to perpetuate
these biases. Mindset has recently been identified as a potentially important
factor with an ambiguous effect on prejudice and stigma. This study explores
the role of mindset in the manifestation of symbolic ableism, since there ex-
ist interventions, aimed at influencing and changing an individual’s mindset
(Yeager et al., 2016).
We set the following research hypotheses:

H1 There is a statistically significant difference in self-reported ableism
between students studying to work with the general population and
those studying to work with vulnerable groups.
H2 There is a statistically significant correlation between mindset and
ableism.
H3 Mindset and the type of study programme (prospective work with
mainly vulnerable groups/mainstream population) and self-assessed
knowledge significantly predict ableism.

Methodology
Participants
This study involved 232 education students from the University of Primorska’s
Faculty of Education, representing various programmes: Pre-school Teaching
(32.3), Social Pedagogy (14.7), Pedagogy (9.9), Primary School Teaching
(32.8) and Inclusive Pedagogy (10.3). Reflecting the gender imbalance in
education fields, 94.8 of participants identified as female (N = 220), with

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