Schools as Racialized and Racializing Places Despite Social Justice-Oriented Policies and Curriculum

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: A Seat at the Table: An Examination of the Perspectives of BIPOC Students in K–12 Settings (Table 2)

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to examine how racism currently appears in Finnish lower secondary schools from the perspectives of 8th grade pupils and staff. Actions to oppose racism in schools and the state of antiracism in lower secondary education are also explored. This study elaborates on how everyday practices, discourses and experiences of racialization are reproduced and resisted in schools. This is a multi-sited ethnographic study building on critical theories of race, antiracism, and whiteness, approached through an intersectional understanding of power in the context of critical education. The results show schools as both racialized and racializing places despite a national social justice-oriented curriculum. Based on the results, antiracist actions are suggested.

Authors

• Gunilla Holm, University of Helsinki

• Saara Loukola, University of Helsinki