Editorial

Maria Sapouna ^1* Hildegunn Fandrem ² Roy Willems ³

• ¹ University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom
• ² University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
• ³ Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands

In their article, Sieben-Aduful et al. (2025) investigated teacher responses to racist bullying and racist incidents in Dutch primary schools through semi-structured interviews with nine teachers. The study concluded that teachers are reticent to acknowledge a racist motive behind students' behaviour and tend to manage racist bullying as 'just bullying' therefore ignoring the particularly negative effects that racism can have on young people. Most discussions that teachers led in class were reactive after an incident occurred and focused on cultural diversity rather than racism. The article also found that teachers are hampered by a lack of training on how to effectively respond to racist incidents at school.In their article, Hay et al. ( 2024) reached surprisingly similar conclusions about how Scottish teachers intervene in cases of racist bullying. Their study analysed 13 teachers' responses to hypothetical vignettes about racist bullying. Similarly to the findings of Sieben-Aduful et al. (2025), this study found that teachers engaged students in discussions about racism in response to the occurrence of incidents as opposed to an embedded curricular approach. In this study too there was reticence on behalf of teachers to acknowledge the vignettes as racist incidents. Furthermore, a similar conclusion as in the Sieben-Aduful et al. ( 2025) study was reached regarding how the lack of training resources such as racial literacy development programmes constrains teachers' ability to respond effectively to racist incidents.The article by Bayram & Özdemir (2024) investigated the relative contributions of teachers' general efficacy (i.e., managing disruptive behaviors in class) and diversityrelated efficacy (i.e., addressing challenges of diversity) on their responses to ethnic victimization incidents. This quantitative study conducted with a sample of 72 head teachers of 8th grade students in Sweden found that teachers adopt a diverse range of strategies to address incidents of ethnic victimization, often prioritising comforting the victim. In a hypothetical victimization incident, teachers with a high sense of efficacy for classroom management, rather than efficacy in addressing diversity-related issues, were more likely to indicate they would contact the parents of both victims and perpetrators and would provide comfort to the victim. According to the authors, these findings highlight the importance of supporting teachers to enhance their efficacy in classroom management to enable them to respond also more effectively to ethnic victimisation incidents. However, the authors also acknowledge that other relevant factors such as the teachers' attitudes toward diversity, their beliefs about the normality of such incidents, and the accuracy of their judgment need to be considered to promote effective responses towards bias-based bullying.In their article, Thomassen et al. (2024) used the concept of pedagogy of discomfort to investigate how feelings of discomfort hinder teachers' and preservice teachers' practice when dealing with bias-based bullying episodes. The study was based on semistructured interviews conducted with 14 pre-service and in-service teachers in Norway. In line with previous research (Røthing, 2019), the study concluded that instances of bias-based bullying generate feelings of discomfort that especially in-service teachers are reluctant to utilise constructively to educate children and young people about sensitive topics. Such feelings of discomfort hindered especially in-service teachers from acknowledging the racist motive of bullying incidents, a finding that replicates the analyses of Sieben-Aduful et al. (2025) andHay et al. (2024) above. Also, teachers in this study reported that the daily pressures of classroom management prevented them from paying adequate attention to instances of bias-based bullying. The article concludes that the pedagogy of discomfort might be a useful tool for prevention and intervention in bias-based bullying, in particular for in-service teachers.The last article by Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger ( 2024) is a conceptual analysis of promoting teachers' professional ethos -in short, their moral values and beliefs towards their work and the associated tasks and obligations, manifested in their professional behavior -to contribute to more effective teacher responses to bias-based bullying. The author argues that teachers who display professional ethos are those that show concern by taking action against bias-based bullying and actively promoting an inclusive environment. However, as pointed also by previous articles in this research topic, it is important to acknowledge that teachers' professional ethos is embedded within the systemic context of the school and educational system. As the author very poignantly points out 'we cannot put the "ethos burden" on teachers' shoulders only'. Indeed, a key message emerging from all the articles in this research topic is that when teachers dismiss bias-based bullying incidents it is often because they lack the knowledge, language and skills to deal with these episodes effectively as found also in previous research (e.g., McIntyre, 2009). This lack of confidence in addressing biasbased bullying in schools is underpinned by a lack of training and institutional support for embedding an inclusive curriculum. Future research and evidence-based interventions are needed to more fully understand teacher responses and support them in preventing and reducing the impact of bias-based bullying. Nonetheless, this research topic has highlighted a clear need for changes in the professional development of teachers across Europe to ensure they are well-equipped to address issues of racism, homophobia and transphobia in their classrooms.