Racism in Finnish basic education: discursive depoliticization through policies

There are legislation and policies promoting equality and non-discrimination in Finnish schools, yet racism remains part of everyday life in schools and school staff find it difficult to address. This article analyses 77 laws and policy documents on the international, national, municipal and school levels, and maps the policy landscape that determines how racism in basic education is perceived in Finland. This article takes the perspective of depoliticization and claims that the policies and their measures discursively remove power and politics from the issue of racism and basic education, resulting in difficulties grasping racism in basic education. By analysing the problem representations in the policies, we find that the topic of racism in basic education is depoliticized in the following ways: universalizing equality, individualizing racism, placing responsibility elsewhere, technicalising actions, suppressing the inherent conflict in racism, silencing the issue of racism, decontextualizing racism, and making declarations of non-racism. We suggest that if racism in basic education is to be addressed through policy, the political dimensions of racism should be articulated in order for the policy to meet racism in its full existence. More research into the tension of depoliticization and politicization of racism and antiracism in education is needed.