Tacit Racism Toward Roma Students: The Case of a Turkish Public School

Ozan Ustuk ()
Additional contact information
Ozan Ustuk: Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkiye

Journal of Economy Culture and Society, 2024, vol. 69, issue 69, 77-85

Abstract: This study aims to reveal hidden racist practices within a Turkish public school and explores their perpetuation through daily interactions between teachers and Roma students. As part of an applied research project dedicated to empowering Roma children in the educational setting, the study employs discourse analysis to expose tacit racist discourses circulating within the school. Using participant observation, casual conversations, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions, the research reveals implicit discriminatory practices in classrooms. Teacher interviews expose a prevalent coping mechanism, i.e., denial, which reflects reluctance to acknowledge their role in perpetuating discrimination despite awareness of the structural inequalities faced by Roma students. While comprehending systemic challenges, the adherence of the teachers to the myth of meritocracy fosters cognitive dissonance, which results in a dismissive incomprehension of the realities of and occasional assignment of blame to Roma students. Cultural stereotypes and pseudogenetic explanations function as convenient means of rationalizing existing biases. Navigating cognitive dissonance, teachers frequently redirect their focus toward the behaviors of Roma people due to a sense of helplessness and the influence of the pervasive meritocratic narrative. This dynamic contributes to the perpetuation of institutional racism through the daily discourse of teachers, which inadvertently exacerbates this systemic issue.

Keywords: Discourse analysis; inclusive education; institutional racism; Roma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/4A23C45CB6C249EA8644A9244207DFF1 (application/pdf)
https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/tr/journal/jecs/ar ... urkish-public-school (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ist:iujecs:v:69:y:2024:i:0:p:77-85

DOI: 10.26650/JECS2023-1327333

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economy Culture and Society is currently edited by Veysel Bozkurt

More articles in Journal of Economy Culture and Society from Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Istanbul University Press Operational Team (Ertuğrul YAŞAR) ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).