Approaches to Anti-Racism In Education

Racism continues to shape educational experiences, opportunities, and outcomes across diverse national contexts. While anti-racism has become an increasingly prominent focus within education policy, research, and practice, there remains considerable debate about what constitutes meaningful anti-racist action and how it can be enacted across different educational settings. This open session invites sociologically informed contributions that examine approaches to anti-racism in education, drawing on empirical, theoretical, methodological, and practice-based perspectives.

We welcome papers exploring anti-racism across early childhood, school, vocational, higher, and community education, as well as teacher education and educational policy. Topics may include, but are not limited to: racial literacy; anti-racist pedagogies; decolonising curriculum; institutional and structural racism; belonging and exclusion; migration, refugee and diaspora education; Indigenous perspectives; intersectionality; whiteness and privilege; policy development and implementation; student, educator and community activism; participatory and community-engaged research; and the evaluation of anti-racist initiatives.

The session aims to foster critical dialogue across international contexts by bringing together researchers working from diverse sociological traditions and methodological approaches. We particularly encourage contributions that move beyond documenting racism to examine strategies for institutional transformation, collective action, and sustainable change.

The session will consist of paper presentations grouped around shared themes, followed by facilitated discussion designed to encourage comparative dialogue, identify emerging research agendas, and build international collaborations. We welcome contributions from established and early career scholars, practitioners, and postgraduate researchers committed to advancing sociological understandings of anti-racism in education.