Antiracism as Protest: Teachers and School Leaders in Norway doing Antiracism

• In Event: Politics, Protest and Educators

Proposal

Racism is a deep and persistent problem in education. In many countries, research across the social sciences have found educational policies and practices to be present as a multilayered system at individual, institutional and societal levels (Ben, Kelly, & Paradies, 2020). While educational approaches to racism are receiving an increasing amount of interest from researchers across the globe (Lynch et al, 2017), there is still a lack of knowledge about what specific efforts teachers and school leaders engage in in different geographical settings. In this paper, I wish to present findings that highlight the work of Norwegian teachers and principals that engage in antiracism, and discuss the possibilities of antiracist action in education as protest. Following the theorization of antiracist actions provided by Diam, Welton & Brooks (2022), I have analyzed teachers’ and school leaders’ antiracist efforts as an interconnection between four domains of activism - policy, community, leadership and teaching and learning.

This paper builds on analysis of qualitative, semi structured in-dept interviews with 14 principals and 18 teachers working in Norwegian primary and lower secondary schools. The schools have been purposely sampled on basis of their commitment to social justice and antiracism. The material has been analyzed through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022). It shows that most participants engage in active avoidance of racism (Goldberg, 2015) and do not experience racism as relevant in their context. Meanwhile, a minority of the participants engage in a variety of acts that address racism, and very few that avoid racism. Here, I will focus on the efforts of these participants, answering the following research questions: what characterizes the anti-racist efforts of teachers and principals that rarely engage in avoidance of racism? (2) how may these efforts be understood as acts of protest? To identify the efforts, I use an understanding of anti-racism that encompasses transformative change in society (Bonnett, 2005). Protest is understood as individual or collective acts that knowingly disrupt norms, with intent of change. In the findings I bring forth in this paper, protest entails an active opposition to the status quo, a divergence from accepting the norms and a willingness to engage for what is believed to be a better society for all.

The findings show that the work of principals and teachers may be seen as interconnections between actions on an individual level, institutional practices they participate in and co-create, and societal structures they ascribe to - operating within and across the domains of activism. The preliminary conclusions of this study show that the efforts are characterized by creativity, strong personal commitment, critical self-scrutiny and understandings of racism as present, complex, layered, and situated. The efforts may be seen as a protest to the general discourse about race and racism that has been found to be dominant in Norway, a discourse of silence and avoidance (Bangstad & Døving, 2015; Helland, 2019). It may also be seen as a protest to the dominance of (narrow) focus on learning outcomes that is dominant in the global narratives of education (OECD, 2023). These findings are relevant for future comparative research on educational efforts against racism, as empirical research from diverse contexts on educational efforts against racism is seldom compared. It is also a contribution for further discussions on efforts against racism as multi layered, operating across domains and levels, a discussion that may be accentuated through a focus on protest.

Author

• Sara Blikstad Nyegaard, Norwegian Center of Holocaust and Minority Studies