ANTIRACISM IN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL : An interview study on social studies teachers' perceptions and implementations of an anti-racist mission

The school has an anti-racist mission where teachers, especially social studies teachers, have a central role. Previous research shows, however, that the school often lacks in counteracting racism, which raises questions about how teachers see racism as a phenomenon and school as an anti-racist place. There is a lack of knowledge about how social studies teachers perceive the anti-racist work and whether and, in such cases, how they implement anti-racism within the framework of social science teaching. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate social studies teachers' perceptions of and implementation of an anti-racist mission in upper secondary school. This was done through five semi-structured interviews which were analyzed with Michael Lipsky's (2010) theory of grassroots bureaucracy which is supplemented by Gert Biesta and Sarah Robinson's (2015) theory of cultural and structural factors, Nicholas Abercrombie, Stephen Hill & Brian Turners (2006) definitions of individual and structural racism and Emma Arnebacks (2012) identified courses of action against racism. The results show that no teacher has an explicit anti-racist attitude, but they perceive the task as aimed at counteracting students 'tendencies to express "problematic" thoughts or opinions, which is a description of purpose that is influenced by teachers' understanding of racism as an individual phenomenon. The attitude to the assignment is positive, but it is perceived to be fraught with challenges that arise partly because of a perceived limited scope for action, and partly because of the teachers believing that there is a measure of anti-racism in the teaching. The teachers also perceive the social studies teacher's special role in an anti-racist assignment partly negatively as it is described as becoming a workload. Criticism is directed at a deficient teacher education that structurally limits the anti-racist work as they feel that it has to a low degree equipped them with competence in racism despite the subject's special relevance, and partly because the entire teacher education was not characterized by this which could even the workload. The teachers believe that they implement the anti-racist mission, and the courses of action are mediating, democratizing, and partly relationally characterized where concrete strategies in social studies are to provide knowledge and practice critical reflection in the students. Important knowledge is mainly about democracy and human rights, and an important skill is critical thinking. The study's conclusions are that social studies teachers do not perceive the school as an explicit anti-racist place, but rather in an implicit way. The fact that the mission is not explicitly carried out can mean that anti-racism is lacking when knowledge of racism is limited, especially when a structural reflexivity is lacking. Although teachers may neglect different expressions of racism in school, the implementation is still often consistent with the curricula's formulations of the anti-racist mission