Empowering minority youth? a capability approach to anti-racist education

Frederique Brossard Børhaug (NLA)

In anti-racist education, it is important to reflect on the pitfalls of the ideal of equality in order to obtain greater social justice. Too narrow an understanding of equality without an acknowledgment of the individual’s ethnic identity provides fragile grounds when dealing with the social and cultural recognition of minority pupils. The capability approach contributes to discussing theoretically the anti-racist dialectical aim of equality and difference. In assessing the individual’s capability to combine his/her own substantive freedoms within his/her specific living, it also gives the possibility to evaluate the concrete social arrangements and resources available to minority pupils. If considering the curriculum as a resource, French and Norwegian school discourses in civic education offer few possibilities for minority youth to expand their capabilities in the multicultural society and to use their own voice in order to build self-governance based on self-articulation of concrete cultural and social aspirations.

Frédérique Brossard Børhaug is Associate Professor of Education at NLA School of Religion, Education and Intercultural Studies, Norway. She holds a Ph.D in education from the University of Oslo. Her field of specialization is intercultural education. She works on ethics and anti-racist education in French and Norwegian multicultural school contexts.
28 October, 13.15-15.00
Uni Rokkansenteret, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6th Floor

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