Deconstructing racism in the classroom
The IMAFREDU project also endeavoured to rectify the distorted image so as to engender a more critical engagement with the existing discourse. It developed a framework of analysis to engage with origins of the exclusion of particular topics and explore various facets of racism. Research looked at the historical emergence of racist ideology and its reproduction in school textbooks. The analysis entailed deconstructing images of people from Africa in geography and history textbooks as well as in the media. Images of Africa that are rooted in colonialism are marked by a simplistic portrayal of the continent. These effectively remove characteristics of western 'humanity' from people of African descent. Thus, the project posited that a legacy of colonial discourses in teaching materials along with Eurocentric perspectives contribute to the reproduction of racism by teachers. Various interviews were conducted with students of African descent and their 'white' peers and teachers to establish attitudes regarding the African continent and its people. Another critical feature of the research involved assessing the mainstream 'development' discourse in Germany and how it maintains implicit discriminatory stereotypes. As the project progressed, an objective was added focusing on training teachers. Beyond workshops designed for teachers across the country, a 'Critical Racism Studies' course was offered to Masters of Education students at the University of Hamburg. This approach was adopted to ensure the effective communication of project findings and their implementation in German classrooms. Analyses of textbooks revealed a consistent hierarchisation of people's living conditions, economies and levels of knowledge, with western countries at the top and African countries at the bottom. Another project finding showed a clear relationship between racist portrayals of Africa and racial discrimination of students of African descent. Project partners applied a sustainable dissemination method to achieve a more thorough understanding of the status quo in Germany. Dissemination and implementation activities included publications in peer-reviewed journals, workshops with varied audiences and communication with publishers of German textbooks. Although IMAFREDU's funding period has come to an end, project work continues with development of a set of guidelines for textbook authors, publishing houses and curriculum developers. Project activities represent a first step towards alternative considerations of issues concerning the portrayal of Africa and attitudes towards its people.
Keywords
Africa, racism, Eurocentric, western culture, textbooks, teacher training, racial discrimination
