The thesis examines how race and racism are understood, experienced and challenged in Norwegian schools, based on the stories of eight racially minoritised teachers working across primary and secondary schools.
"The inquiry is motivated by a persistent gap between pupils’ experiences of racism and the limited institutional and policy guidance available for addressing racism in educational practice", writes Danelle du Plessis to inn.no.
Danelle du Plessis has been associated with the PhD programme in Teaching and Teacher Education.
Anchored in Critical Race Theory and Black Feminist epistemologies, the thesis centres racially minoritised teachers’ lived and professional experiences as a source of knowledge to explore how institutional norms and practices sustain racial inequity, and how teachers navigate and resist these conditions in their professional work.
"The study contributes practice-based knowledge that can support educators, teacher educators, and policymakers in recognising and addressing racism, and in developing more structurally grounded and relational approaches to anti-racist education", says the PhD fellow.
Danelle's thesis is titled "Race-evasiveness and resistance in educational practice. Counter-narratives from racially minoritised teachers in Norwegian schools".
The main findings of the doctoral thesis:
- Colour-blind norms of equality and neutrality mask structural injustices and racialised power relations, making racism difficult to name and address.
- Examining institutional routines, norms, and discourses move analysis beyond individualist and moral framings towards a structural account of how racism functions in schools.
- Racism in schools is further produced relationally, through intersections with language, religion, nationality, and professional norms, rather than through fixed or visible racial categories alone.
- Teachers’ existing anti-racist practices provide concrete, practice-based knowledge that can inform teacher education and professional learning, highlighting anti-racism as institutional work across classrooms, staff relations, and school leadership.
- Silence in educational policy and steering documents on race and racism results in anti-racist education being enacted through individual discretion rather than institutional mandate, making such practice uneven and contingent.