What is the NERA network on Critical Race, Racism and Whiteness in Education?
The NERA network on Critical Race, Racism and Whiteness in Education unites scholars across the Nordics working with questions concerning racism, whiteness, intersectionality and coloniality in education. We engage in critical analyses of how racism, whiteness, coloniality and epistemic violence is reproduced and/or resisted in and through education, and explore approaches to education and pedagogy embedded in anti-racist, decolonial, or indigenous approaches.
Research indicates that Nordic societies are viewed as already fair and equal (Lundström & Hübinette, 2022; Schough, 2008). This view inhibits research on contemporary racism and perpetuates a colorblind approach and obscure how power structures and racial inequalities are reproduced in educational arenas (Wahlström Smith, 2020). Beliefs of Nordic exceptionalism and egalitarianism combined with the reluctance to name race or racialization as well as a long-standing denials of colonial complicity, have delayed theoretical understandings of racism in its contemporary forms (Keskinen, Skaptadóttir & Toivanen, 2019; Loftsdóttir, K., & Jensen, L., 2012; Lundström & Hübinette, 2022). Current research indicates a need to locate and interrupt absences in the theory and knowledge concerning race, whiteness and coloniality in educational arenas. It is in this area that research in this network wishes to intervene, since the absence of theoretical development not only constitutes a lack but is also constructive in terms of reproducing unjust practices. Several studies demonstrate how racialized and intersectional structures create different opportunities for different students in education (Helakorpi, Lappalainen, & Mietola, 2020; Lundberg, 2021). Fields such as multicultural education – that strives to strengthen participation for all students – however easily reproduce razialized Othering (Fylkesnes, 2019; Hummelstedt, 2022).
Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Whiteness Studies within education are internationally well-established fields but have been slow in developing in Nordic countries – delays that are partly due to a reluctance to engage with racism in the Nordic context (Svendsen, 2014). Critical race and whiteness studies are based on the tenet that racism permeates the social and structural fabric and silently perpetuates racial inequalities. It thus advocates for the transformation of educational and institutional practices as a matter of social justice (Bell, 1992; Crenshaw, 1990; Crenshaw, 1995; Delgado, Harris, Harris, & Stefancic, 2017; Ladson-Billings, 1998). Critical race and whiteness perspectives provide analytical approaches to interrogate the ways race and whiteness are socio-culturally constructed and reproduced within and through institutionalized educational practices (Ladson-Billings 1998). Given their unique and increasingly diverse educational landscapes, Nordic educational researchers point to the need to collectively develop research-based knowledge of race and whiteness in its contemporary forms – a task that is of central concern and interest to this network.
Calls to decolonize education and academia have gained momentum on a global scale over the past years. Decolonization of education is simultaneously a political imperative and demand, a series of epistemological questions, and a question of material structures related to justice, access and representation. Decolonization further involves a radical democratization of epistemology through deconstruction of the unquestioned hegemony of dominant, Eurocentric forms of knowledge production and research methodologies (Smith, 2010). Current research upholds that the Nordic countries, in spite of their contextual differences, are prone to amnesia, denials, and sanctioned ignorance in relation to their colonial histories and complicities (Eriksen, 2021; Eriksen & Jore, 2023; Mikander, 2015). This in particular concerns the sanctioned ignorance of the colonization of Sápmi, which is still ongoing (Fjellheim, 2023; Finbog, 2023), with serious ramifications for education.
We are interested in exploring these topics in and through education at all levels, from early childhood through higher education, and in particular teacher education. We welcome all interested scholars to sign up for our mailing list and attend our events and join our session at the NERA conferences.
References
Bell, D. A. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well : The permanence of racism: BasicBooks.
Crenshaw, K. (1990). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stan. L. Rev., 43, 1241.
Crenshaw, K. (1995). Critical race theory : the key writings that formed the movement: New Press.
Delgado, R. a. h. i. l. g. v. r. a., Harris, A. c. h. i. l. g. v. r. c., Harris, A., & Stefancic, J. a. h. i. l. g. v. r. a. (2017). Critical Race Theory (Third Edition) : An Introduction: New York University Press.
Eriksen, K.G. (2021). “We usually don’t talk that way about Europe …” Interrupting the coloniality of Norwegian citizenship education. USN.
Eriksen, K., & Jore, M. K. (2023). (Tapte) muligheter for kritisk tenkning: Post-og dekoloniale perspektiver i samfunnsfag. Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education, 13 (2023: 2), 135-158.
Finbog, L.R. (2023). It Speaks to you. Making Kin of People, Stories and Duodji in Sámi Museums. Dio Press.
Fjellheim, E. M. (2023). “You Can Kill Us with Dialogue:” Critical Perspectives on Wind Energy Development in a Nordic-Saami Green Colonial Context. Human Rights Review, 24(1), 25-51.
Fylkesnes, S. (2019). Whiteness in teacher education discourses: An analysis of the
discursive usage and meaning making of the term cultural diversity. Oslo Metropolitan University.
Helakorpi, J., Lappalainen, S., & Mietola, R. (2020). Equality in the making? Roma and Traveller minority policies and basic education in three Nordic countries. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 64(1), 52-69.
Hummelstedt, I. (2022). Acknowledgning diversity but reproducing the Other: A critical analysis of Finnish multicultural education. Helsinki Studies in Education, number 138.
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Lundberg, O. (2021). The property functions of whiteness and Swedishness – a case study of race reputation and status in urban education. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 7(3), 148-158. doi:10.1080/20020317.2021.2008114
Lundström, C., & Hübinette, T. (2022). Den färgblinda skolan : Ras och vithet i svensk utbildning. Stockholm: Natur och kultur.
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Smith, L. T. (2010). Decolonizing methodologies. Research and indigenous peoples. Zed
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Svendsen, S. H. B. (2014). Learning racism in the absence of race. European Journal of
Women’s Studies, 21(1), 9–24. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506813507717
Wahlström Smith, Å. (2020). Beyond Colour-Blind Intercultural Education: Operationalising the Concept of Culture for Future Preschool Teachers. kritisk etnografi: Swedish Journal of Anthropology, 3(2), 37-53.