In an eighth grade class, German is a discussion. The students, divided into groups, should take on two roles:
- Children who want more pocket money and
- Parents who are not willing to pay them more pocket money.
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Everyday racism in the classroom
When it is the turn of one of the groups, she begins: “We are a Turkish family and the parents don’t speak German, so we’re speaking Turkish now.” Since I know the reality of my students’ lives at the private Catholic high school (where I worked from 2010 to 2016), it is clear to me that they have no significant contact with people they describe as “Turks”. The arguments of the ‘Turkish parents’ follow: “Dude, I don’t give you any money because I don’t have a job. You go to work yourself. I don’t have any money, you know.”
Racism in the classroom – a primary school teacher asks the question: Can we unlearn racist thought patterns? At Terra Xplore, Leon Windscheid highlights what we can learn today from the “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes” experiment.
02.02.2026 | 15:15 min
The entire class was offered an imaginative journey through the racism-relevant imaginary world of my students. Racism operates with fantasies about people that are stored as knowledge in order to systematize one’s own everyday reality: the “own” is enhanced, the “other” is devalued.
Why are people still judged by skin and hair color? Cabaret artist and author Marius Jung goes on a search to clarify the origin of the term “racism”.
11.06.2020 | 15:22 min
Criticism of racism: How should a teacher react?
As a teacher, I was left with the following reaction options:
• Scandalization / moralization: I could have told the students that I was very disappointed in them because they were all racists.
• No reaction at all / ignoring the relevance of racism: I could have remained silent and focused on the discussion instead.
• Productive handling: Discussing students’ racism-related fantasies in a non-moralizing manner.
Using innovative methods, teacher Reff teaches ethics, politics and geography at a Berlin hotspot school and campaigns against discrimination, racism and bullying.
27.01.2026 | 28:36 min
Reduce prejudice instead of shaming
I decided on the third form of interaction. In the following lessons, we dealt with the racism-relevant images in the students’ minds – and their origins in the media, in conversations with friends and family or in children’s and school books.
The discussion of this racism-relevant alienation of people took place without victim-perpetrator language and without raising a pointer – because moralization leads to learning opportunities with regard to one’s own racism-relevant knowledge not being taken advantage of. Dealing with everyday situations relevant to racism is not about guilt, but about taking responsibility.
People experience everyday racism in Germany every day. At 37 degrees, three black people talk about their experiences.
20.02.2024 | 28:35 min
Unlearning racism – what each of us can do
I believe that all people should deal with racism – including people who have experienced racism themselves. Anti-racism and empowerment workshops can be the start. Each of us should ask ourselves: Even though I don’t want to be racist, what has racism taught me? This includes biographical work, such as that suggested in the books by Tupoka Ogette.
Only through society as a whole dealing with racism in an appreciative manner – and on an equal footing – can individual and structural sensitization take place. Learning about racism happens automatically. However, unlearning racism is an active process that you have to decide on every day.
… Professor of didactics of social science education at the Ruhr University Bochum. His work focuses on criticism of racism in educational institutions, school research and political education in the migration society and diversity-sensitive teacher training. Fereidooni has advised the federal government on, among other things, combating racism and integration through education.
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date: 2026-02-15 14:13:00