Racism and antiziganism as challenges for inclusive citizenship education in schools and teacher-training

Inclusive citizenship education aims at reducing exclusionary practices in educational settings and social participation. Immanent structures, such as racism, and processes regarding hegemony, power and dominance in the context of these constructions of exclusion are reflected critically. (c.f. Kleinschmidt/Lange 2016) School as a place of learning plays a key role in countering institutional racism and antiziganism, the “manifestation of individual expressions and acts as well as institutional policies and practices of marginalization, exclusion, physical violence, devaluation of Roma cultures and lifestyles, and hate speech directed at Roma as well as other individuals and groups perceived, stigmatized, or persecuted during the Nazi era, and still today, as “Gypsies‘” (IHRA 2020). E.g., the authors of the current RomnoKher-education study summarise that teachers must be trained during their studies accordingly to promote the educational success of the minority of Sinti and Roma. (RomnoKher 2021). At school, teachers are confronted with discriminatory and anti-democratic attitudes of their students. However, the didactic approach to counter such behaviour often varies (Strauß 2011). With regard to racism, (prospective) teachers in turn later pass on their respective ideas to students at school. For this reason, the understandings and perspectives of students and (prospective) teachers should be consciously examined and reflected upon especially with regard to possible areas of improvement in the field of teacher-training. Hence, the paper will highlight a study in which subjective ideas of racism were analysed from the perspective of these prospective teachers (Kierot 2023). On this basis, racism-critical learning occasions could be further developed with the help of empirically founded, theoretically sound and didactic impulses for target group-specific teaching and learning processes about racism. The overall aim of the proposed paper is to show the relevance of (prospective) teachers' conceptions of the phenomena of racism and antiziganism for inclusive citizenship education. By reflecting on the results of two studies conducted in Austria and Germany, the paper discusses the connection between teachers’ conceptions and didactic strategies related to racism and antiziganism and serves to display key findings and possible implications for teacher-training in the framework of inclusive citizenship education. Literature International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (2020): Working definition of antigypsyism/anti-Roma discrimination. Online: https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antigypsyism-anti-roma-discrimination Kierot, Lara (expected 2023): Rassismus in den Vorstellungen angehender Lehrkräfte. Ein Beitrag zur politikdidaktischen Forschung (working title). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Kleinschmidt, Malte/Lange, Dirk (2016): Demokratie, Identität und Bürgerschaft jenseits des Nationalstaats. Inclusive Citizenship Education als neuer Ansatz der Politischen Bildung. In: Forum Politische Bildung (Ed.): Informationen zur Politischen Bildung. Nr. 40, p. 13-19. Strauß, Daniel (Ed.) (2011): Studie zur aktuellen Bildungssituation deutscher Sinti und Roma. Dokumentation und Forschungsbericht. Marburg. Strauß, Daniel (Ed.) (2021): RomnoKher-Studie 2021. Ungleiche Teilhabe. Zur Lage der Sinti und Roma in Deutschland. Mannheim: RomnoKher.