In the grey zone of free speech : a study of local policy documents against xenophobia in school

• The problem of living together gives school a communicative and democratic task – to live democracy. In the Swedish national curriculum (Lpo/Lpf 94) democracy is a central concept, that regulates the values the school should promote, but it also supports the idea of free speech for pupils. The occurrence of xenophobic expressions in schools presents to the democratic task a specific challenge: How can schools respond to xenophobic expressions in relation to free speech and the right not to be violated in school?This paper focuses on three local policy-documents that regulate how staff in school should respond to xenophobic expressions. The theoretical approaches are based on the tension between free speech and human inviolability, and philosophy of communication by Jürgen Habermas and Moira von Wright. My purpose related reading focuses on three questions: 1) How do the documents define the content in xenophobia, 2) what or/and who is the xenophobic and the xenon (the foreigner) in the documents, and 3) in which way do the documents prescribe how to respond to xenophobic expressions? Finally, I discuss what possible consequences different way of thinking can have for how to look upon teachers’ assignment and limitations in the grey zone of free speech.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Education

Pedagogik

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Education

Pedagogik

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)