Racism in Schools (PDF)

Racism, i.e. discrimination against people on the basis of their perceived ethnic origin, is pervasive in schools. Apart from students, pre-service teachers and teachers, all actors in the school context are affected by this topic.

Why is this so? How can racist discrimination be explained? What effects does this behavior have on those affected? And how can schools counteract it? These are all questions that arise and which this book aims to answer with the intention of enabling all those acting in the school context to critically examine their own knowledge bases relevant to racism. This book contributes to the development of school as a racism-sensitive space in which all actors behave in a racism-sensitive manner.

Therefore, in addition to an overview of the history of racism, approaches to explaining racist behaviors and effects of racial discrimination, prevention and intervention approaches for a practice critical of racism in schools are presented.

The editors
Dr. Matthias Böhmer, graduate psychologist, is a psychological psychotherapist. He is an academic at several universities (since 2008 at the University of Luxembourg) and conducts research in the field of empirical educational research and on REBT.

Dr. Georges Steffgen, graduate psychologist, is Professor of Social and Work Psychology at the University of Luxembourg and conducts research on aggression, emotion regulation and health promotion.


The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.