Everyday Racisms in the Superdiverse Swedish School: Children´s experience and Educational Practices

Education is often defined as key to combatting racism. At the same time, research has shown that racism is a part of everyday life in Swedish schools.

This project foregrounds the voices of children affected by racism, and analyses how different forms of everyday racisms is experienced, enabled, practiced and potentially countered in the superdiverse life-word of Swedish public upper-secondary education.

Our starting point is that the complex nature of everyday racisms, and the experiences of children and youth, cannot be understood without taking into account how of the concepts of racism, discrimination and integration is understood, discussed, defined and practiced across the different levels of the complex Swedish educational policy chain.

To that end, the project employs a contextual approach that combines 1) ethnographic field work in a public upper secondary school, characterized by a socio-cultural and socio-economic heterogenous student population, 2) interviews with students, teachers and school leaders, as well as 3) quantitative and qualitative discourse- and sociolegal analysis of policy documents, legal frameworks and political debates on racism, discrimination and integration across the many levels of the Swedish educational system.

The project aims to provide important knowledge and tools for educators, school leaders and decision makers, in their work to address issues of racism and racial inequality in education.