Interethnic Conflict Management for Teachers Accord mooc lesson_4

1. accord-project.eu
ACCORD PROJECT
Attain Cultural Integration through COnflict Resolution
skill Development

2. ACCORD MOOC
Theoretical framing interethnic conflicts in the classroom: perspectives
derived from sociology, anthropology and social psychology
Overview units:
Unit 1: ethnic inequality and ethnic discrimination in European educational
systems
Unit 2: theoretical framing ‘interethnic conflict’ scenarios in the classroom

3. Unit 1
Ethnic inequality and ethnic discrimination in European educational systems

4. UNIT 1
Table of contents:
• Migration in Europe
• Integration and educational ethnic inequality in Europe
• Ethnic discrimination in education: definition, prevalence
and consequences
• Ethnic discrimination in the classroom: some preliminary
thoughts

5. Migration in Europe
• Europe has become a multicultural patchwork with millions of new
immigrants: what does it actually mean?
• Immigration context in Europe = ‘superdiverse’
o Large inflow from small number of origin countries (50’s – 90’s) to smaller inflow from a
large number of origin countries (90’s onwards)
o Current migration is also characterized by a large diversity in gender, age, socio-
economic profiles and goals/aspirations within the immigrant population
• National differences within Europe: different sizes and ethnic
compositions also due to historical context context of a nation

6. Integration and
educational ethnic inequality in Europe
• What is integration? And what does it mean to be ‘integrated in a host
society?
o Integration and acculturation processes can happen in multiple ways > different
meanings of the ‘integration concept’
• No clear consensus in Europe on the meaning of ‘integration’, but the
role of education is seen as a crucial in integration processes
• Despite the emphasis of education in integration processes research shows
that education still remains one of the greatest weaknesses in
integration policies of European member states.

7. Integration and
educational ethnic inequality in Europe
• European scientific research shows different aspects of ethnic inequality in
the educational sector. Some examples:
• Immigrant pupils have a lower level of educational attaintment than ‘native’ pupils
• ...
• BUT immigrants puipils show greater motivitation than ‘native’ pupils to do well in
school
How can the dispartiy between the expression of greater motivation of pupils
with an immigrant background on the one hand and ethnic inequality in the
European educational systems on the other be explained?

8. Integration and
educational ethnic inequality in Europe
• Causes of educational ethnic inequality? Combination individual, family,
school and educational related factors.
• Central cause in the context of this lesson: the feeling of unfair treatment
in a pupil-teacher interaction.
• Focus units on one form of unfair treatment:
ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

9. Ethnic discrimination in education:
definitions
• Ethnic discrimination
= ‘the differential treatment on the basis of ethnicity that disadvantages a member of a specific
ethnic group (Quillian, 1995)’
• Ethnicity
= a concept that can ‘include racial, religious, cultural, national and/or language boundaries’
(Kivisto & Crull, 2012)
• Ethnic discrimination situated on two levels: interpersonal and
instutional

10. Ethnic discrimination in education:
prevalence
• Immigrants are still particular targets of prejudice and discrimination within
the European Union
• Very complex to measure:
o For example due to he social nature of ethnic discrimination
• Conclusion: difficult to measure, yet ethnic discrimination is proved to be
still very common in a classroom context

11. Ethnic discrimination in education:
consequences
• Ethnic discrimination can be related with severe individual phsyical,
psychological, social and educational consequences. For example, it
has a negative impact on:
o Self-esteem
o Sense of school belonging
o Aspirations
o Study motivation
• ... Also related to instutional consequences. For example:
o Creation of hostile school climate
Conclusion: ethnic discrimination has a devastating impact on the individual,
but also on society as a whole

12. Ethnic discrimination in the classroom:
some preliminary thoughts
• How can ethnic discrimination look like in the classroom?
o Variety: differents forms and occurences of ethnic discrimination > no straight forward
solution for teachers
• Some final remarks (Wrench, 2017):
• General tendency from overt to more subtle and covert forms of ethnic discrimination:
‘the invisibility of ethnic discrimination’
• Ethnic discrimination is not limited to acts of ‘racist persons’ or those with bad intentions
• Ethnic discrimination should be made discussable

13. Recommended readings and links
• Readings
o Brown, C.S. (2015). The educational, psychological and social impact of discrimination on the immigrant child.
Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.
o Geldof, D. (2016). Superdiversity in the heart of Europe. Leuven: ACCO.
o OECD (2016). PISA 2015 results (Volume 1): excellence and equity in education, PISA. Paris: OECD Publishing.
o OECD (2018). The resilience of students with an immigrant background: factors that shape well-being. Paris:
OECD Publishing.
o Stevens, P. A. J., & Dworkin, A. G. (2014). The Palgrave handbook of race and ethnic inequalities in education.
London: Palgrave.
o Vertovec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024-1054. DOI:
10.1080/01419870701599465
o Wrench, J. (2015). Raising awareness of the problem of discrimination against migrants and minorities in
employment. Retrieved from http://www.globalmigrationpolicy.org/articles/Events/WrenchGenevaAug2015.pdf
• Links
o http://www.mipex.eu/
o http://fra.europa.eu/en

14. Unit 2
Theoretical framing ‘interethnic conflict’ scenarios in the classroom

15. UNIT 2
Table of contents:
• Introduction
• Discussion ‘interethnic conflict’ scenarios
o Scenario 1
o Scenario 2
o Scenario 3
o Scenario 4
o Scenario 5
• Conclusion and general guidelines

16. Introduction
• Theoretical framework per scenario will be presented
(anthropological, sociological and social psychology perspectives)
• Goal: no straight forward solutions, rather showing the complexity of
ethnic discrimination in a classroom context and providing new perspectives
• 5 scenarios will be discussed, all occurences of ethnic discrimination in a
classroom context

17. Scenario 1
A boy of Ethiopian descent caught the attention of the teacher during class because
he was making too much noise. Despite several warnings of the teacher, the
student and the teacher get caught up in a verbal conflict. At some point during the
conflict the boy screams to the teacher that ‘history still lingers on’ and ‘white
people still treat people of colour as slaves’.

18. Discussion scenario 1
• Instrumental use of ethnic identity by the pupil as most plausible
interpretation? > also other perspectives to look at it...
• ‘Ethnic/racial majority vs. Minority readings of history’ (Delgado &
Stefancic, 2001) > different readings of a history
• Growing up as a member of an ethnic minority > influence on the frame of
reference (to society as a whole)

19. Scenario 2
During an ICT-Class, a boy of Italian descent forwards an e-mail with a picture
enclosed to his classmates. Suddenly, the whole class starts laughing. The picture
shows a selfie of two monkeys wearing sunglasses and has a text which says: “this
is a picture of us during our holidays in Brazil.” He shouts: ‘Sam’s holidays picture
[boy of African descent].’

20. Discussion scenario 2
• Ethnic humour is a common occurence and can express prejudices, be
insulting (e.g., blatant jokes), and also be a ‘clash of interpretations’
• Ambivalent character also reflected in different scientific perspectives:
o Ethnic humour rarely has an effect of meaning
o Ethnic humour reflects (and sustains) ethnic inequalities
o Ethnic humour cannot be generalized, depends on context, intention, etc.
• Ethnic humour does not trigger ethnic inequalities as such, but
depending on different factors they can sustain ethnic inequalities,
reinforce prejudices and ethnic stereotyping and be insultive.
• Consider situational, relational and intrapersonal factors > Ethnic humour
needs to be approached with caution, as ‘you cannot not
communicate’ (Watzalawick, 1967)

21. Scenario 3
The subject of the course today is the exploration of religions. The teacher kindly
asks a Muslim pupil to teach the class everything what there is to tell about the
religion of Islam. The teacher always enjoys it when her own pupils can learn her
something new. The pupil refuses to accomplish the request of the teacher.

22. Discussion scenario 3
• A subtle form of ethnic discrimination
• Theoretical framework of racial/ethnic microaggressions (Sue et al.,
2007, p. 273):
‘brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indiginities, whether
intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative
racial/ethnic slights and insults to the target group or person’
Form of ethnic micro-aggression Example
Ethnic micro-assault All Muslims are terrorists
Ethnic micro-insult You are Asian, I’m sure you are good in
math
Ethnic micro-invalidation No, he didn’t mean it as a ‘racial slur’

23. Scenario 4
During class, the subject of ethnic discrimination comes up. The teacher invites
everyone to share their experiences. One girl shares the story of how people in the
grocery store always look weird at her mother because of the fact that she wears a
headscarf. One of the pupil of the class states that people may not look weird at her
because of what she wears but because of the way she acts. Not everything that
looks like a racist reaction at first sight is racist per se. The Muslim girl becomes
furious and responds that this is not true.

24. Discussion scenario 4
• Scenario shows different facets of ethnic discrimination
• Some already discussed (see previous scenarios)
• New theoretical perspective:
o ‘Racism/ethnic prejudices and discrimination is a structural, institutional and
interpersonal phenomenon. Racism is endemic to all Western societies (Quaynor &
Lintner, 2015)’
o Structural, indirect and side-effect ethnic discrimination in European
educational systems (see also unit 1)
o Why is interpersonal ethnic discrimination frequently denied and not recognized, when
some mechanism of structural ethnic discrimination are so apparent?

25. Scenario 5
The class watched a movie that tackled the theme of sexuality. One of the topics
during the movie was about homosexuality. After the movie a discussion in class
takes place. A Muslim boy of Turkish descent feels disgusted and shouts that two
boys kissing shouldn’t be allowed and is completely unethical. An Orthodox
Christian boy of Greek descent reacts and say that ‘the Turkish is a backward
culture and the Islam is not a religion of modern times.’

26. Discussion scenario 5
• A negative perception of homosexuality is not solely related with an
ethnic minority group, as attitudes towards (homo)sexuality are also
influenced by gender, age and socio-economic background
• Remark concerning ethnic discrimination towards the ethnic
majority:
(!) Important distinction between ethnic discrimination acted out by a member
of an ethnic minority group and by a member of an ethnic majority group >
(a) clear differences in societal power relations (see also ethnic inequality and
structural/institutional ethnic discrimination)
(b) ethnic minority members experience ethnic slurs on a regular basis (also
outside of school)

27. Conclusion and general guidelines
• Conclusions:
o ‘Interethnic conflicts’ can be seemingly small and subtle
o ‘Interethnic conflicts’ have a complex character
o The perspectives offered can be used to raise awareness about and as inspiration to
deal with/prevent ethnic discrimination on a class- and school level
• General guidelines:
1. Be aware of your own assumptions and prejudices about (individual members of)
ethnic minority groups
2. Be aware of the impact that experiences of ethnic discrimination can have on the
individual
3. You should not be afraid to talk about ethnicity and ethnic discrimination

28. Suggested readings and links
• Readings
o Bonillla-Silva, E. (2003). Racism wthout racists. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
o Desmond, M., & Emirbayer, M. (2009). What is racial domination? Du Bois Review, 6(2), 335-355.
doi:10.10170S1742058X09990166
o Tatum, B. D. (2017). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? New York: Basic Books.
o Wise, T. (2004). 'White like me: reflections on race from a privileged son‘. United States: Soft Skull Press.
• Links
o https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/microaggressions-in-everyday-life/201010/racial-microaggressions-
in-everyday-life
• Videos
o Fragment about ‘everyday racism’ and ‘racial/ethnic microaggressions’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0vTzgOBC9A
o Fragment ‘the invisible discriminator’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVevKISMyx0
o Racial/ethnic prejudice & discrimination (crash course sociology):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSddUPkVD24&t=307s
o Moving the race conversation forward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjGQaz1u3V4
o Top 10 racist cartoon moments (can be used as course material):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NY6LxiDFU
o Brown/blue eyes: confronting racist attitudes through education:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTVw9d3SIzA