The project will result in three studies, focusing on anti-racism in the curriculum, as well as the perspectives of school leaders and teaching staff.
In Norway, it is generally agreed that schools play an important role in combating racism. Nevertheless, research indicates that schools’ efforts in this area are inadequate (K. G. Eriksen, 2021; Midtbøen, Orupabo & Røthing, 2014; Riese & Harlap, 2021; Wollscheid, Lynnebakke & Kindt, 2022). This picture is confirmed by many personal testimonies in the media and reports published by multiple bodies (Antirasistisk senter, 2017, UNICEF, 2022) which indicate that pupils experience racism in the form of violence, threats, hate speech, exclusion and microaggressions, as well as having their abilities underrated. Racism in schools often seems to stand uncontested, overlooked, misunderstood or not taken seriously by those in charge.
This doctoral research project is generating new insights into how racism and anti-racism are understood at three different levels in the school system. The schools’ mandate is being explored though analysis of the current national curriculum, LK20. Here, the research is looking at the opportunities afforded in the national curriculum for anti-racism activities, with particular emphasis on the overarching part and the curricula for the subjects Norwegian, Social Studies and Christianity, Religion, Philosophies of Life and Ethics (KRLE) for Years 1–10. School managements are studied through an examination of head teachers’ understanding of racism, with the head teachers’ own descriptions of the school’s efforts to combat racism as the basis for a qualitative analysis. The perspective of the teaching staff is also being studied. Here, the emphasis is on what the teachers themselves think is important and challenging in their efforts to combat racism.
The overall goal of this work is to increase insights into schools’ anti-racist mandate and key players’ understanding of that mandate. The project will add important knowledge of schools’ efforts to combat racism and can inform their further work in this area.