On Teachers' Professional Ambivalence When Colleagues Express Racism

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Emotions, Beliefs, and Dispositions: Making Sense of Complicated Constructs

Abstract

This paper sheds light on how teachers act and reflect on their actions in response to expressions of racism among colleagues. The empirical data consists of qualitative interviews with 27 high school teachers in Sweden, but, in order to dig deeper into the experiences of teachers, this paper focuses on three teachers (Tove, Fatima and Hannah). The result points at a professional ambivalence on how to act, since there is no common ground among teachers for how to act when colleagues express racism. To act against racism comes at high costs and very much depends on each teacher’s previous experiences of life and work. Consequently, each teacher is provided a unique space and resource base for reflection and action.

Authors

• Emma Maria Kristin Arneback, Orebro University

• Andreas Lennart Bergh, Örebro University, Sweden

• Ásgeir Tryggvason, Örebro University