Continuing a conversation about racism with teenagers: using the social work research dialogue approach

Increased global migration has resulted in greater societal diversity and associated discourse about racism and integration. The importance of engaging young people in these discussions cannot be underestimated. In 2020, an Irish school partnered academics with teenagers to undertake participative research on the school community’s experiences of racism: ‘Starting a conversation about racism with teenagers’. The results revealed an unanticipated level of racism. Two years later, another group of teenagers were tasked with reviewing progress in the school’s bid to address racism. The intervening years were marked by increased far-right-led anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland, reinforcing the importance of the topic. This co-created study – ‘Continuing a conversation about racism with teenagers’ – revisits the topic of racism to capture changes and work remaining to be done. The findings, which were presented by the teenage researchers at the 2024 European Conference for Social Work Research, revealed a mixed bag of progress: limited progress overall, but subtle changes that can be built on. The teenage researchers concluded that their peers had started a conversation about racism in the school, that they themselves had continued the conversation and that the school must now make sure the conversations do not stop: ‘We need to keep talking about racism.’