Vangelis Tzislis, Antonis Sapountzis

Racism in Classroom and Moral Accountability in the Discourse of Educators and Students of Education Departments

Introduction

Racism in classroom and moral accountability in the discourse of educators and students of education departments. Explore how educators & education students attribute classroom racism & prejudice. This study examines moral accountability, ideological consequences, blaming parents or teacher traits.

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine where school-teachers and students of education departments attribute the prejudice and racism that they believe is observed in schools. For the purpose of data collection, we employed semi-structured, open-ended individual interviews which were recorded with the use of technological means and only after participants have provided informed consent. Participants were twenty school-teachers who were residing in Thessaloniki and Alexandroupoli at the time, and sixteen students who studied at Thessaloniki and Alexandroupoli. The interviews were analyzed, after their transcription, according to the principles of Critical Discursive Social Psychology. Emphasis was laid, on one hand, on the way participants managed their accountability at the local context, while on the other hand we scrutinized the more distal ideological consequences stemming from the deployment of the specific constructions. Often prejudice within schools was attributed to the parents, either because participants believed that they face adverse financial conditions in Greece, or because they believed that they adhere to conservative political ideologies. In other rhetorical contexts participants attributed prejudice to school-teachers themselves who were either of older age, or with individual characteristics that led them to racism. 

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