Ethnicity and Ethnic Discrimination in Schools: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Educational classes address profound social, political, cultural and economic issues of ethnicity. The social teaching Program in schools includes some thematic units that introduce some important ethnic groups. These units include educational values and critical thinking; reading literature; culture, perception and communication; issues of ethnicity. In this article, we discuss the thematic unit “issues of ethnicity” in order to identify some of the challenges facing classes in which ethnicity is a major topic. We distinguish explicit (“old”) and implicit (“new”) forms of ethnic discrimination, arguing that implicit forms of ethnic discrimination require a discourse analytical approach to analyzing ethnicity. We believe that this approach offers provocative opportunities for class discussion of ethnicity and ethnic discrimination.

Keywords: ethnicity, ethnic discrimination, educational classes, critical discourse analysis