Denna uppsats är till sin form en reflekterande vetenskaplig essä som undersöker en normkritisk jämlikhetsarbetares praktiska kunnande och yrkesvillkor. Författarens egen yrkeserfarenhet finns med i form av en berättelse från ett genusprojekt inom högre skådespelarutbildning. Denna dilemmasituation bildar utgångspunkt för ett undersökande i dialog med historiska och samtida tänkare och praktiker. Framträdande i undersökningen är Aristoteles kunskapsbegrepp fronesis – den praktiska klokheten. Undersökningen beskriver några av de komplexiteter som finns i att bedriva ett arbete som utmanar maktordningar i en organisation och visar att det krävs praktisk klokhet för att hantera motstånd, starka känslor och våld. / This reflective scientific essay examines the practical knowledge of the equality worker involved with anti-oppressive education in a Swedish context, where the term “norm critique” is used. The writers personal experience is included in the work, in the form of a narrative from a “messy situation” in a project centered on gender perspectives in actor training. This dilemma is the starting point for an inquiry in dialogue with contemporary and historical thinkers and practitioners. Prominently in the essay is Aristotle's term for skill and practical wisdom, phronesis. The inquiry describes some of the complexities that lies in doing counter hegemonic work within organizations and it shows that this kind of work demands practical wisdom to be able to handle resistance, strong emotions and violence.

The magical fictional setting of the Harry Potter novels is not one separated from our own. It features the same nations and the same history as the real world. Its society is parallel to ours due to similar traditions and hierarchies, such as heteronormativity, ageism, racism, and fascism. Some of these are clearly problematised in the novels, others are not. While issues of racism and blood status are clearly at the forefront of the story of Harry Potter, there are layers to the conflict which reveal that there is more to the discriminatory dilemma than the issue of blood purity. This essay aims to investigate how teachers can use J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series to lead a discussion about othering and discrimination, focusing on the issue of ableism in particular. The goal when studying processes of othering in Harry Potter is not necessarily for the reader to identify with the protagonists. Instead, textual silences will be interpreted to investigate whether the othering of people like the readers themselves, an othering the reader partakes in when empathising with the protagonists, can be compared to ableism in the real world, and how teachers can use Harry Potter as means to introduce the idea of able-bodiedness as a social construct. By applying crip theory to the text, it can be stated that the division between the protagonist and his non-magical Other is based on ableist ideologies, which result in a positioning of the non-magical as disabled in the magical society. This position is maintained by naturalising the link between impairment and character flaws.

This thesis explores educator beliefs, attitudes and practices in teaching First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Ethnic students in Canada, including Muslim and Arabic students. Research supports evidence of on-going systemic racism toward the First Nations, Métis and Inuit, and New Canadians in society, and therefore, within our schools and our classrooms. Evidence also exists regarding how racism, invisibly instilled in educators as societal norms, permeates classrooms and helps continue to perpetuate marginalization and Othering of students. The research question was: How can teachers begin to deconstruct Euro-Centric, White Dominant beliefs, practices, attitudes and expectations in order to positively impact all students and their academic well-being? I examine the questions: What are some teachers doing which positively impacts learning for all students? What can be done to help teachers realize that some of their teaching practices and ways of dealing with students are disrespectful to the individual children and contribute to systemic racism?

Teachers play a pivotal role in the production of discourse on race relations in education, yet few studies have researched the impact of white teacher identity construction as a variable in the creation and maintenance of racial ideologies, particularly here in Canada. The majority of the current research done on racism in schools has produced data that points to the widespread denial of racism by the majority of white teachers and students, while parents, teachers and students of color acknowledge the pervasive role racism plays in their educational and social lives. While the focus on institutional and systemic racism is important, it sometimes denies the role individuals play in the reproduction of racism and in our ability to make change. For these reasons, it is critical to consider the identity constructions of white teachers, as these constructions will influence how we interpret and respond to existing racial inequalities in education. <p>This research will draw from poststructural theories of discourse analysis in order to analyze how white teacher identity constructions of innocence are reproduced in an education system where racial inequalities are pervasive and systemic. Discourse analysis and deconstruction are important in understanding the way our subjectivity as white teachers continues to be produced and maintained.<p>This study takes place in the Prairie region, where Aboriginal people have been produced as the racial Other historically. Using an open-ended questionnaire, in-service, and focus group method, this research study invites educators to narrate their own perceptions of racism in schools. The collection and analysis of this data begins to address the theoretical gap in academic knowledge on teacher perceptions of racism in education.

Teachers play a pivotal role in the production of discourse on race relations in education, yet few studies have researched the impact of white teacher identity construction as a variable in the creation and maintenance of racial ideologies, particularly here in Canada. The majority of the current research done on racism in schools has produced data that points to the widespread denial of racism by the majority of white teachers and students, while parents, teachers and students of color acknowledge the pervasive role racism plays in their educational and social lives. While the focus on institutional and systemic racism is important, it sometimes denies the role individuals play in the reproduction of racism and in our ability to make change. For these reasons, it is critical to consider the identity constructions of white teachers, as these constructions will influence how we interpret and respond to existing racial inequalities in education. <p>This research will draw from poststructural theories of discourse analysis in order to analyze how white teacher identity constructions of innocence are reproduced in an education system where racial inequalities are pervasive and systemic. Discourse analysis and deconstruction are important in understanding the way our subjectivity as white teachers continues to be produced and maintained.<p>This study takes place in the Prairie region, where Aboriginal people have been produced as the racial Other historically. Using an open-ended questionnaire, in-service, and focus group method, this research study invites educators to narrate their own perceptions of racism in schools. The collection and analysis of this data begins to address the theoretical gap in academic knowledge on teacher perceptions of racism in education.

The aim of this paper is to examine how teachers experience their possibilities to develop democratic teaching in high school and how they reflect upon their position of power within the teaching situation. Four professional high school teachers have been interviewed for the study. The theoretical perspective of the study is an intersectional view on power and a view on democratic teaching which is partly built on the high school curriculum, but mainly defined by deliberative conversations, anti-oppressive education and norm-critical education. The result of the study is focused on three themes, which were shown in the analysis of the interviews. These themes are: choices of teaching content,  authority of the teacher and democratic teaching. The conclusion of the study is that there is no fixed manual or one single method, for democratic teaching. However, if possibilites are created through educational politics, teacher tranining, existing norms at the school, and individual teachers ability to reflect upon their own position of power, democratic and anti-oppressive education is possible.

The first two decades of the 20th century have brought us to a critical crossroad that few could have predicted when the calendar ticked over from 1999 to 2000. The strife of world wars, of intolerance, of discrimination, of prejudice and oppression that were so evident in the 20th century should have provided the impetus for peace and acceptance in the 21st. Yet, world events early in this century have demonstrated that we have not learned from the lessons of history and thus, unless we intervene, we are doomed to repeat them. Teachers and schools play significant roles in shaping future citizens – in helping learners develop character and integrity, to value others and the earth, and to work collaboratively to address problems new and old. Teacher educators play a critical role in developing the pedagogical understanding of pre-service teachers as they prepare to take up these roles in Canadian classrooms. Teacher educators working from and for a social justice mandate recognize that there are many factors that impact their ability to guide pre-service teachers to a greater understanding and valuing of equity and diversity in their classrooms, schools, and communities. This study’s exploration of factors that constrain or enable this work has exposed the difficulty and intransigence of perceiving the work and ultimately, the world through polarized binaries of either/or – constrain or enable. This has resulted in a greater respect for the complexity in envisioning and enacting pedagogy and practice that strives to inculcate pre-service teachers with a commitment to creating classrooms focused on equity, diversity and social justice. / Graduate

Under arbetet med denna studie fann vi att toleranspedagogik är ett relativt outforskat område inom svensk förskola. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om och i så fall hur förskollärare använder sig av toleranspedagogik i relation till kulturell mångfald i sin yrkesutövning. I detta syfte ingick även att undersöka huruvida förskollärares kännedom om toleranspedagogik skiljer sig åt beroende på yrkeserfarenhet. För att undersöka detta har vi genomfört två delstudier som bestått av kvalitativa intervjuer. I varje delstudie har fem förskollärare med stor geografisk spridning intervjuats. I delstudie 1 intervjuades förskollärare med två års yrkeserfarenhet eller mindre, i delstudie 2 intervjuades förskollärare med 15 års yrkeserfarenhet eller mer. Databearbetning skedde genom riktad innehållsanalys där vi kodade materialet utifrån vår teoretiska ram. Vi valde att använda Kevin Kumashiros teori om antiförtryckande undervisning. Detta gav oss möjlighet att belysa förskolan som ett normativt landskap där diskriminering, stereotypisering och osynliggörande av olika kulturella identiteter kan ske. I Kumashiros teori ingår fyra förändringsstrategier för antiförtryckande undervisning, vilka främst fokuserats i vår databearbetning. Delstudiernas sammanställda resultat indikerar att toleranspedagogik var ett välanvänt pedagogiskt arbetssätt hos de förskollärare som ingick i studien. Dock visade resultatet att ingen av de deltagande förskollärarna hade en kännedom om toleranspedagogikens innebörd. Delstudiernas resultat visade på en viss skillnad i mångkulturella arbetssätt mellan förskollärare med längre yrkeserfarenhet kontra kortare yrkeserfarenhet. Vidare fann vi i våra resultat att vissa arbetssätt inte gick att placera under Kumashiros fyra strategier. Därmed fann vi att i vissa barngrupper användes undervisningsstrategier vilka inte tog hänsyn till kulturell mångfald. Vi fann också att i många fall användes svenskhet som norm för undervisningen. Utifrån dessa resultat skulle det varit intressant att vidare undersöka vilka de långsiktiga konsekvenserna av toleranspedagogik skulle kunna bli.

In this study I aim to contribute to the field of feminist corpomaterial intersectional pedagogies, which I understand as a part of the broader field of feminist postconstructionist pedagogies. Against the background of feminist postconstructionism I wish to overcome binary understandings of for example discourse/materiality, theory/practice, male/female and mind/body in pedagogies. To follow this through I have analysed how affects and emotions are present in a classroom by studying the possibility of taking a starting point in the body while rethinking the anti-oppressive and norm critical pedagogical idea of the self-reflective teacher. In order to challenge the idea of the teacher as a neutral, universal and rational knowledge producer, I have in this study analysed how one can affectively and emotionally situate teacher-bodies and participant-bodies in a classroom.   The analysis was carried out on the basis of empirical material collected at a workshop on corporeality and norm critical pedagogy organised in a teacher-training program at a Swedish university. The workshop was conducted as intra-active-research and the material consists of my field diary, eight written interviews, one oral interview and my experiences from leading the workshop. I argue in this study that teacher-bodies affectively and emotionally could be situated as both following a corporeal schema, an expected plan for how a teacher-body should act and move, and also as stepping away from and disrupting this schema. Further on I argue that teacher-bodies could be situated as memory banks and as working from memory. I stress how important it is in pedagogic situations to be aware of the ways in which bodies in a room affect and are affected by each other, in other words; how bodies “do not end at the skin”. This affective and emotional situatedness shows how it is possible to overcome the idea of teachers and students as bodily neutral. I also argue that it might be important to integrate workshops on corporealities in teacher training. This could be one possible way to start to think on one’s affectively and emotionally situatedness as teacher, something I claim as required if one aspires for a feminist intersectional corpomaterial pedagogy.

This essay analyzes the theme of “Otherness” in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein through three different lenses: queer readings, feminist readings, and disability studies, which will offer multiple perspectives of the “Otherness” present in the novel. The essay will engage with critics such as Benjamin Bagocius, Fuson Wang, and Colleen Hobbs. The aim of this essay is to utilize analyzed passages in Upper Secondary classrooms to cultivate critical thinking among students on issues of oppression and privilege in order to foster Anti-Oppressive education. The essay begins by introducing the concept of “Otherness” and its significance in Frankenstein. It then delves into the three different lenses and their perspectives on the theme of “Otherness.” Through these different readings, the essay demonstrates the complex and multi-layered nature of “Otherness” in Frankenstein. Furthermore, the essay argues that this analysis can be used to establish an Anti-Oppressive education in the Upper Secondary classroom. By critically examining how oppression and privilege operate in the novel, students can learn to recognize and challenge oppressive systems in society.  The essay then moves into a discussion of why an Anti-Oppressive education is necessary. Specifically, it briefly critiques the Swedish curriculum for addressing oppression in a way that increases tolerance towards marginalized groups, rather than recognizing privilege and challenging the systemic roots of oppression.