Inequitable discourses on refugee students resisted and maintained by educators–the perspective of decontextualisation

This paper examines discourses that place refugee students in an inequitable position in school. Focussing on decontextualisation–a depoliticising way of seeing education that overlooks contexts–the paper is based on semi-structured interviews with teachers (n = 15) and open questions of a survey data (n = 267) collected from teachers, principals and teacher assistants at the end of 2022 in Finland. After analysing discourses, we found that educators both resisted and maintained the discourse of valuing skills in terms of the starting points/readiness of refugee students and in language hierarchies; the discourse of normality in inclusivity and in behaviour; the discourse of silence in antiracism education for teachers and in addressing racism in students’ peer relations. The paper concludes that decontextualisation is grounded in everyday schooling and fails to recognise the differing intersecting positions and contexts that create inequitable possibilities for different people in society. This paper calls for a continuous systematic effort of antiracism education at all levels, as well as curricular structures that support schools in understanding contexts.