Racism in Children's Lives: A Study of Mainly-white Primary Schools (Routledge Library Editions: Education and Race)

by Barry Troyna (Author), RichardHatcher (Author)

• New

  Hardcover
  2018

  $116.60

  Originally published in 1992. Both teachers and the general public have traditionally been unwilling to acknowledge that concepts of `race' might play a part in the lives of primary school children. For this book the authors spent a term in each of three mainly white primary schools. They talked to black and white pupils individually and in small groups about issues, not necessarily of `race', which the children themselves saw as important. From these conversations they present a fascinating study of how `race' emerges for young children as a plausible explanatory framework for incidents in their everyday lives. The final picture is both disturbing in its demonstration of how significant racism is and hopeful in showing how frequently anti-racist attitudes exist even in the thinking of children who engage in racist behaviour. A final chapter looks at how school policy can combat racism and build on these positive elements.