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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1393719
This article is part of the Research Topic Teacher Responses to Bias-based Bullying View all 5 articles

Teachers' responses to racism and racist bullying in Dutch primary schools

Provisionally accepted
Karen M.A. Sieben-Aduful Karen M.A. Sieben-Aduful 1*Roy A. Willems Roy A. Willems 1*Trijntje Völlink Trijntje Völlink 1*Nico van der Wiel Nico van der Wiel 1*Maria Sapouna Maria Sapouna 2*Pieter A.C. de Bruijn Pieter A.C. de Bruijn 1*Gemma Blok Gemma Blok 1*Arjan E.R. Bos Arjan E.R. Bos 1*Giel van Lankveld Giel van Lankveld 1*
  • 1 Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
  • 2 University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    BACKGROUND: Early in life, children with a non-White skin color, or a non-Western cultural or religious background, are susceptible of experiencing acts of racism. Since they spend /a significant time of their daily life in school, teachers have a crucial role in providing a safe and bias-free environment for these children. However, teachers might find it challenging to react to bullying based on racism.AIM: This study aims to investigate teachers' experiences of and reactions to racist bullying among pupils in primary schools in The Netherlands. Additionally, this study aims to explore how racism is discussed in class.METHOD: With nine semi-structured in-depth interviews teachers' attitudes and reactions towards racist bullying were examined as well as their perceived competence and skills of handling this. In addition, teachers' availability on tools to discuss racism in class was investigated as well. Data was analyzed using thematic analyses.The results show that teachers emphasize a safe class climate but find it challenging addressing racist incidents, for instance determining its severity, or coping with the external influences on pupils' racist beliefs. Most teachers also expressed to not make a distinction between racist and interpersonal bullying. While teachers expressed that they talked about racism in the classroom, it seemed that they primarily talked about cultural diversity and not racism per se.CONCLUSION: Dealing with racism and racist bullying is an important but complicated task for teachers. Providing teachers with appropriate tools to increase knowledge, awareness and skills will help them to understand the negative impact racism has on children. Further, the results implicate that a pro-active approach can stimulate teachers to critically reflect on their own racial identity, and on school methods, teaching resources and policies concerning racism.

    Keywords: racist bullying, perceived competence, Class climate, educational material, Support needs, Teacher responses

    Received: 01 Mar 2024; Accepted: 20 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sieben-Aduful, Willems, Völlink, van der Wiel, Sapouna, de Bruijn, Blok, Bos and van Lankveld. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Karen M.A. Sieben-Aduful, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
    Roy A. Willems, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
    Trijntje Völlink, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
    Nico van der Wiel, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
    Maria Sapouna, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, PA1 2BE, Scotland, United Kingdom
    Pieter A.C. de Bruijn, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
    Gemma Blok, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
    Arjan E.R. Bos, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
    Giel van Lankveld, Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.