Critical Examination of Race and Racism in Teacher Education (CERiTE)

Racism is a persistent societal problem that is also evident in kindergartens and schools. Yet, research shows that talking about race is taboo in Norway, making teachers, pre-service teachers and teacher educators to avoid race and racism related topics, as they create uneasiness. We know little about the knowledge and skills preservice teachers acquire through teacher education to enable them to address and challenge race and racism in society. CERiTE’s main goal is to develop research-based knowledge about how teacher education can contribute to professional knowledge necessary to prevent, address and counter racism in education and society. The project utilizes Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the project team aims to: •map knowledge, challenges and strategies related to race and racism among teacher educators and student teachers •investigate the transformative potentials in newer theoretical perspectives •develop knowledge of how to use museums as alternative teaching and learning arenas for topics related to race and racism •explore the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) technology to develop pre-service teachers’ insight on how conscious and subconscious racialized biases and racism are expressed in kindergartens and schools •develop more empirical knowledge about racialization and racism based on the experiences of racialized teachers and preservice teachers The project is interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral in collaboration between researchers and professionals from different educational disciplines and institutions. These are from Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Østfold University College, Elverum Municipality, Dembra-Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue, The Norwegian Emigrant Museum, Glomdal Museum and Randsfjord Museum. Results will add to the knowledge base and increase the competency among future teachers, educators and others to counter racism, thereby contributing to strengthening social justice in Norwegian education and society.

Racism is increasingly becoming a threat to democratic values in our society. The aim of CERiTE project is to develop research-based knowledge on how teacher education can contribute to the improvement of preservice teachers’ professional competence required to identify and counter racial injustice in Norwegian education and society. This will be done by centering issues of race and racism in teacher education, broadening the professional vocabularies for teacher educators and preservice teachers, but also developing interdisciplinary explorative teaching approaches to address race and racism in education and society. CERiTE applies Critical Race Theory (CRT), as alternative critical theoretical lenses in Norwegian educational research, to address the taken for granted institutional practices which marginalise racialised minorities in the education system and contexts. CERiTE uses multisciplinary and interdisciplinary methodological approaches to both research and teaching. These include museums as alternative teaching arenas and Virtual Reality (VR) technology in teaching about social phenomenon such as racialization and racism. This contributes to the development of innovative and critical approaches to teaching about race and racism in society. Among the expected scientific results are 10 peer reviewed articles/chapters, disseminated in at least 8 national and international conferences. Given the international and interdisciplinary nature of the group, the results will be published in different fields and languages ensuring broad outreach. The anticipated societal impact is to provide preservice teachers, inservice teachers, museum workers and other educational practitioners professional vocabularies and skills to address race and racism in education and society. Knowledge about race and racism in teacher education, but also among our partners, is important in promoting sustainable development goals (SDG) number 4, 10 and 16.