Facts

Contact person:
Sara Nilsson Mohammadi
Financer:
  • Swedish Research Council
Responsible at MaU:
Sara Nilsson Mohammadi
Time frame:
01 September 2022 - 30 June 2027
Research subject:

About the project

Most teachers and school policies want to combat racism. However, extensive studies show that schools reproduce racist power structures. A paradox emerges between what teachers on a conscious level want to achieve and how it turns out in some of the school's practices. In my PhD project I explore, through action research in collaboration with teachers, ways to counteract racism in schools. I collaborate with two groups of teachers at two different municipal secondary schools. The teachers, who all are seeking to enhance their efforts against racism, and I are working together during the academic year 2023/2024. During this year I will also interview students of these teachers. The purpose of the student interviews is to examine students' perspectives on racism and ways to counteract racism. Theoretically, my ambition is to combine relational psychoanalytic perspectives with postcolonial theories. The hope is that work against racism will be strengthened among the teachers I collaborate with and that deracialization can be examined and developed both in action and as a theoretical concept.

The overall questions of the thesis are:

  • What do teachers want to change by participating in action research on deracialization?
  • How does action research with teachers shape deracialization practices in the school?
  • What and how do students report on their experiences of racialization and deracialization at school?
  • How can deracialization practices be generalized conceptually and practically?