Explaining sustained inequalities in ethnic minority school exclusions in England—passive racism in a neoliberal grip

Parsons, Carl

doi:10.1080/03054980902814492

Cited by 31 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…Yet the dominant discourse in schools was and is colour and power evasive: as such open discussions about the emotive and confrontational issue of race, highlighting children's ethnic differences, and dealing proactively with racist incidents were all practices which were likely to be resisted. Several research studies found that this was indeed the case: schools were found to be the slowest of public institutions in their response to meeting the new requirements (Schneider-Ross 2003), and only a minority had progressed beyond the stage of drafting a policy to evaluating the impact of it (Parsons 2009). …”

Section: The Policy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experienced school staff, too, were found to lack an understanding of racism that went beyond overt verbal and physical aggression (Gillborn 2002;Pearce 2005;Parsons 2009). …”

Section: The Policy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What matters is the consequence of these evasions. The consequence of some teachers' mistrust of the process of reporting racist incidents is that patterns of collective injustice are not identified, and therefore not addressed (Parsons 2009). The consequence of some teachers' definitions of children's comments about skin colour as racist is that race talk is prohibited.…”

Section: Definitions Of Racism In Popular and Academic Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

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Dealing with racist incidents: what do beginning teachers learn from schools?

Pearce

2013

Race Ethnicity and Education

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This article focuses on how schools respond to racist incidents, and what new teachers learn from their involvement in those processes. It analyses four incidents involving the pupils of four beginning teachers. The article suggests that in each case, schools either partly or wholly avoided addressing the incident, and that this avoidance can be understood in terms of the colour and power evasive discourse, which is the dominant discourse on race in Western societies, and in most schools. One aspect of this discourse is that racism is defined on the basis of individual intentions, not outcomes. The article argues that it may be possible to adopt a more race cognisant approach with student teachers and staff in schools, building on nascent understandings of institutional racism, which shifts the focus to outcomes rather than intentions. The article demonstrates this approach, analysing each incident in terms of its consequences for the learning of the new teacher, and for the promotion of race equality in the school. While the small number of incidents may initially appear heartening, their negative impact on both teacher confidence and children's understanding may be significant. The findings suggest that in the changing context of initial teacher education in England, approaches to supporting both schools and new teachers in this often misunderstood area are much needed, and that one way forward may be to give teachers time and support to critically reflect on and discuss their experiences.Keywords: race, racist incidents, institutional racism, student teachers, beginning teachers, whiteness IntroductionRacism remains an important problem in UK schools. In 2012 the BBC's news website reported that the number of racist incidents logged by schools rose steadily between 2007 and 2010, the year in which the current Coalition Government removed the obligation for schools to keep records (BBC 2012) 1 . In some areas, the number of reported cases increased by 40% in that period. The BBC website reported a leading anti-racism campaign group describing the 88,000cases as 'the tip of the iceberg', since such cases are very often under-reported (BBC 2012). Yet one popular newspaper reported the story of the release of the figures under the headline, '88,000 children branded racists' (Daily Mail, 2012). In taking this stance, the newspaper drew on the dominant discourse on race in British society and elsewhere, which fails to understand the purpose of monitoring such incidents, and sees racism only as extreme and violent acts, rather than a subtle and pervasive feature of our social structures. The headline suggests that the act of logging a racist incident automatically defines the individual involved as 'a racist': racism is only ever understood as personal prejudice. But some of the individual cases quoted in the story suggest another aspect of this discourse: some senior managers in school appeared to have defined any direct reference children made to race as a racist incident. According to this colourblind way of th...

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Section: The Policy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experienced school staff, too, were found to lack an understanding of racism that went beyond overt verbal and physical aggression (Gillborn 2002;Pearce 2005;Parsons 2009). …”

Section: The Policy Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Definitions Of Racism In Popular and Academic Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

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Dealing with racist incidents: what do beginning teachers learn from schools?

Pearce

2013

Race Ethnicity and Education

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“…But, in relation to the disciplined, excluded, punished 'homophobic' pupil, the legitimate violence of law serves to not only mask its own homophobia but positions it elsewhere, outside, onto an 'uncivilised other'. And once again it is important to recognise that school discipline and exclusions, as with criminal justice generally, has a hugely disproportionate classed dimension (Parsons, 1999). As Munt observes, in what she describes as 'shame logic':…”

Section: Law and Ordermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the repeated calls for zero tolerance in relation to bullying reveals how homophobic bullying is made speakable in this way through its ability to cohere with a conservative law and order discourse. As a result the significant race and class dimensions of exclusions (Parsons, 1999;Parsons and Harris, 2001;Parsons, 2009) and the impact on poor parents (almost always the mothers), who through parenting contracts are increasingly held responsible for their children's behaviour, are overlooked and silenced in this account (Gillies, 2005;Gewirtz, 2001). As Harris argues, the disciplinary response to bullying risks the 'complete abandonment of the perpetrators of bullying who .…”

Section: School Disciplinementioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging homophobic bullying in schools: the politics of progress

Monk

2011

International Journal of Law in Context

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In recent years homophobic bullying has received increased attention from NGOs, academics and government sources and concern about the issue crosses traditional moral and political divisions. This article examines this 'progressive' development and identifies the 'conditions of possibility' that have enabled the issue to become a harm that can be spoken of. In doing so it questions whether the readiness to speak about the issue represents the opposite to prohibitions on speech (such as the notorious Section 28) or whether it is based on more subtle forms of governance. It argues that homophobic bullying is heard through three key discourses ('child abuse', 'the child victim' and 'the tragic gay') and that, while enabling an acknowledgement of certain harms, they simultaneously silence other needs and experiences. It then moves to explore the aspirational and 'liberatory' political investments that underlie these seemingly 'common-sense' descriptive discourses and concludes with a critique of the quasi-criminal responses that the dominant political agenda of homophobic bullying gives rise to. The article draws on, and endeavours to develop a conversation between, critical engagements with the contemporary politics of both childhood and sexuality.

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Interrogating Parent‐School Practices in a Market‐Based System. The Professionalization of Parenting and Intensification of Parental Involvement

Crozier

2018

The Wiley Handbook of Family, School, and Community Relationships in Education

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Explaining sustained inequalities in ethnic minority school exclusions in England—passive racism in a neoliberal grip

Cited by 31 publications

References 10 publications

Dealing with racist incidents: what do beginning teachers learn from schools?

Dealing with racist incidents: what do beginning teachers learn from schools?

Challenging homophobic bullying in schools: the politics of progress

Interrogating Parent‐School Practices in a Market‐Based System. The Professionalization of Parenting and Intensification of Parental Involvement

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