Under the Skin: Anti-Racism Professional Development for
Teachers
Maree Parker and Yolanda Tognini, Equity Unit, Education Queensland.
Abstract
"Under The Skin: Combating Racism in Queensland Schools"
is a professional development package for teachers designed to
support schools in the specific implementation of two policies
of Education Queensland - The Cultural and Language Diversity
in Education and the Anti-Racism Policies. It is in draft form
and has been trialed across the state for the last 2 years.
The workshops consist of a series of activities that enable
participants to actively engage in:
- Broadening their understandings of racism and the concepts
associated with it.
- Exploring how racism has been historically and socially constructed
in Australia and in particular in Queensland Working towards
a safer and more supportive environment by planning and implementing
strategies that reflect a whole school approach.
The hour long video is stimulus material through which to
explore issues further and is in 5 parts:
- Real life incidents set in schools and designed to "touch"
participants;
- Concepts such as prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination,
and their relationship to racism;
- The meaning and forms of racism;
- The historical sources of racism in Queensland;
- School strategies.
The package is underpinned by the theoretical perspectives
on racism articulated by Fazal Rizvi in his article "Thinking
About Racism" printed in the QATESOL Occasional Papers,
September-October 1995, and in "The Teeth are Smiling"
by Stephen Castles and Ellie Vasta. Some of the more important
of these perspectives include:
- Racism is not a psychological or biological phenomenon, but
rather is socially constructed;
- Racism is shaped differently for different groups in Australian
society; e.g. for Aborigines and Asians;
- To understand racism; it must be contextualised - eg historical
and contemporary colonisation in Australia;
- Consideration must be given to the links with other phenomena
such as nationalism and sexism;
- Racism is a contested, and constantly changing phenomenon
according to contemporary issues and events.
For the purposes of a 90 minute workshop, the following will
be covered as activities in which participants engage:
- Dramatised real-life incidents meant to touch participants;
- Concepts associated with racism;
- The history of Australia as a social construction;
- Strategies to combat racism.
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