This project explores antiracism as a dynamic curriculum practice. Antiracism practice is examined by focusing on how the interplay and tensions between discursive patterns and resistance manifest. The study follows a strand of curriculum research that engages with critical perspectives on the structural ideologies that curricula reproduce, as well as possibilities for transformation (see Schubert, 2018). Scholars have previously problematised how normalised discourses on what is “good” and desirable in European societies tend to reproduce problematic ideas about equality and people(s) (Hübinette and Lundström 2014). This study delves into this issue and explores various perspectives on racism and combating racism within antiracism practice, across the school as an institution.

By highlighting challenges and possibilities within teaching specifically, the study contributes to another, related strand of curriculum research. This strand explores pedagogical opportunities of European dimensions in education, while also considering potential dangers (see Philippou, 2005). The study contributes to this strand by examining the topic of colonialism in teaching, more specifically (cf. Araújo and Maeso, 2012; Jore, 2019; Nagre, 2025). As the study problematises, antiracism practice, partly connected to the topic of colonialism, is characterised by intersecting interests such as social justice, economic development, educational assessment, and friendships.

The project is guided by the overarching question: How is antiracism practised through discursive interplays in a Swedish compulsory school? To study this, the research questions are divided into three questions:

• How do students describe racism and antiracism?
• How are racism and antiracism displayed in relevant documents and classroom practice?
• What do students express about this classroom practice and the school practice in general regarding antiracism? What opportunities and limitations do students identify?

Theories on curriculum making (Priestley et al., 2021) and critical discourse analysis (Simpson et al., 2018) contribute to the theoretical framework, emphasising curriculum sites of activity and agency. The presentation specifically addresses how antiracism discourse spans the national curriculum, a teacher’s lessons related to racism, and students’ everyday life in school. Power is understood as routines and language sustained through discourse—in this case, antiracism discourse—and appears as natural and commonsense. The study explores discourse strategies and their links to ideology and resistance in antiracism discourse shaped through curriculum making. Some strategies are analysed as denials of racism, reflecting an ideology that reproduces racism structurally and often unintentionally characterises antiracism discourse in Sweden (Habel, 2012). This ideology manifests in expressions and practices of silencing, minimising, and denying racism, which uphold privileges for those who conform to white norms (cf. van Dijk, 1992; Bonilla-Silva, 2014; Lipsitz, 2019). Other strategies are analysed as discourse resistance to the denial of racism and offer insights into potentials for future antiracism efforts. They also represent possible ideologies of antiracism.

The study is qualitative with a methodology inspired by the theoretical framework that emphasises sites of activity and the connection between discursive strategies and ideology. One Swedish lower secondary school was chosen to illustrate antiracism as a discursive curriculum practice. The school is an interesting case, as the participants describe both the school and the surrounding area as predominantly white and socially isolated from other parts of the municipality. During the interviews, many students discussed challenges and opportunities for antiracism in relation to these aspects. Methods were selected to focus on students in Years 7-9 and the activities they engage in, particularly the classroom practice. During one school year, classroom observations (n = 26) with limited researcher participation and student interviews (n = 24) were carried out. The observations were conducted during lessons addressing antiracism. The lessons were either selected because they were likely to address antiracism spontaneously or suggested by the teachers. The interviews were semi-structured and centred on 1) how students discussed the classroom practice I observed, and 2) their understanding of racism and antiracism in school and more broadly. The data include video and audio recordings, transcripts, fieldnotes, the national curriculum, and the school’s equal treatment plan. The ongoing analysis process is iterative, alternating between identifying recurrent discursive patterns through discourse strategies (linguistic features and intertextuality), resistance, emerging themes and theorising the discursive interplays.

The preliminary findings reveal antiracism practice as a network of discourses encompassing societal development, Swedish history, democracy, human rights, world events, and desirable relationships. These discourses cover topics such as economic progress, residential segregation, Sweden’s negative past, equality, political changes and conflicts, empathy, as well as humour and boundaries. Discursive strategies identified in the data show tendencies for the discourses to be utilised in ways that favour economic progress and white interests, thereby reinforcing positive self-representations that minimise events linked to racism. Across lesson topics, the findings specifically highlight patterns of neutralising dominant curriculum narratives that centre a general economic baseline within antiracism content. These tendencies and patterns reflect denials of racism, which are sometimes challenged by discursive resistance. Such resistances illustrate possibilities for opposing denial patterns within the discourse. These resistances present alternative pathways for antiracism and recognising what has previously been overlooked. As the preliminary findings indicate, these alternative pathways often rely on specific teaching materials or the teacher’s didactic choices with specific antiracist aims and recurrent resistance to the previous dominant discourse. To better understand how challenges and opportunities emerge within the practice, different ways that antiracism is enabled are identified. These ways represent the ways texts are commonly drawn upon and characterise the specific antiracism as a curriculum practice. So far, antiracism has emerged in four ways within the discourse: through planned, spontaneous, supplementary, and individual and group-based antiracism. While the first three refer to how the topic of antiracism is enabled, the latter represent the ways actors relate antiracism to their specific identities and friendship groups. Altogether, the analysis highlights antiracism practice as conditioned by contemporary, sometimes contradictory, interests and the continual considerations within an educational institution that need to be reflected on.

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