KLAS1719 Antiracism in Education (5 cr)

The course introduces students to the different forms of racism and focuses on how to act against racism and becoming anti-racist by actively engaging in self-reflection and criticizing institutional and systemic racism. Students will learn how to critically analyze pedagogical practices and how to actively engage in anti-racist practices to ensure a safe and inclusive space for all students, regardless of their racial background. Students will be introduced to global perspectives on researching race and racism and further challenged to deconstruct Eurocentric (majority centric) ideologies. Further, students are guided towards critical analysis of forms of knowledge and whiteness (power imbalance) within the existing curricula. Anti-racist readings and strategies will teach students to question and dismantle racism, white supremacy, and systems of power that exist within their institutions, communities, and learned pedagogy. During the course, students will participate in group discussions, implement projects and reflect learning on a project or mini research reports.

- Critique of majority centric / Eurocentric curricula and Western knowledge

- Post-modern Colonialism

- Different levels of racism and racializing procedures and practices

- Everyday racism

- Deconstructing conceptions of normality

- Micro-aggressions in the classroom

- Implicit racial biases

- Subtractive schooling/exceptionalism

- Role of language in constructing and maintaining unequal power structures.

- Media discourses and racism

After completing this course, students will:

- Be able to recognize racializing processes and procedures, self-reflect on racism within systems and institutions around them.

- Learn to criticize the systems in place that are centered around power imbalance, whiteness or majority/normality re-producing unequal power relations based on race/ethnicity.

- Understand how to act and take action by implementing anti-racist practices within the educational field (policy, curriculum design, pedagogy, research).

The course is run in cooperation with the University of Helsinki and Åbo Academi University.

Alemanji, A. A. (Ed.). (2017). Antiracism education in and out of schools. Springer.

Hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, NY: Routledge.

Kendi, I. (2019). How to Be an Antiracist. New York, NY: One World.