Session Information
Session 3, Minority provision and some majority responses
Papers
Time:
2003-09-18
11:00-12:30
Room:
Chair:
Chris Gaine
Contribution
This paper examines the outcome of some innovative research-based curriculum development work on anti-racism (the Eurokid project). The issue of racism is itself is of key interest across Europe at EU level and at the level of some national governments. Engaging with it effectively with school students is well recognised as challenging. Teams of researchers across Spain, Sweden and the UK have developed web sites for use with young people as a specific form of on-line teaching and learning resource, addressing issues of antiracism and responses to diversity and cultural, and freely available to individuals, schools, and to anyone with access to the Internet. The web sites are to be found at www.swedkid.nu; www.britkid.org; www.spanishkidorg/ www.diversidadjuvenil.org. The virtuality of the net, a notably youth-oriented medium, is used to problematise and 'trouble' young people's experiences and perspectives regarding what it is to be 'truly' or 'newly' Swedish, Spanish or British. In so doing, the web site seeks to illuminate, challenge and intervene in the processes of racialisation of society and culture. Previous presentations at ECER conferences have been on the specific conditions that minorities face in each country, and key similarities and differences in researching and developing the sites to connect to historical and cultural specificities. At this point in the joint project, the web sites will have been on line for about 9 months and the paper will draw on the extensive data available from all three countries about their use. The majority of the data is derived from questionnaires completed by a minimum of ten class groups in five or more different schools in each country. This is supplemented by interview data, data derived from log-ins and movement across the sites, and from observations of, and discussions with, teachers. The evaluation questionnaires seek users' responses to the web sites, bearing in mind the intricate discursive and material practices that constitute racism. In creating the sites, no simple response or learning outcome is anticipated in the users, rather a critical engagement with the taken- for-granted nature of racist ideas and stereotypes. How teachers use the web sites is also considered, taking into account their familiarity with the medium as well as with the message. The paper will summarise evaluation outcomes, including commentary about the effectiveness of the research design and the practicalities of employing web-based pedagogies across three different countries, with different pedagogical, curriculum and information technology traditions and investments, as well as different national histories with respect to racism.
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