Abstract
This is a retrospective case study of students who were active in neo-Nazi movements and their teachers’ experiences of the strategies deployed to deal with the students’ expressions of extreme racism during their high school years. The study focuses on a period just after the turn of the millennium when Swedish schools were being particularly impacted by young people who were engaged in neo-Nazi movements. The study analyses the experiences of one particular school where a special unit was set up which aimed to segregate these students from their peers. During that period, separate units of this kind were often set up in Swedish schools to manage various types of behavioural problems. This was very much at odds with the educational goal of an inclusive education system. This study contributes to an understanding of what mechanisms were used in deploying this strategy and the results show that radicalisation among these students actually increased because of this strategy, and furthermore led to higher overall rates of failure in their studies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
In Sweden, a ban on hate speech was implemented by a Government Bill in 1948. The referenced law is found in Chapter 16 Section 8 of the Swedish Criminal Code. This legislation has been referenced multiple times by various school in relation to their handling of racist extremism.
References
Arneback, E., & Jämte, J. (2017). Att motverka rasism i förskolan och skolan. Natur & Kultur.
Carlsson, R., & Nilhom, C. (2004). Demokrati och inkludering—en begreppsdiskussion. Utbildning & Demokrati., 13(2), 77–95.
Haug, P. (1998). Specialpedagogiskt dilemma: Specialundervisning. Swedish National Agency for Education.
Hjörne, E., & Säljö, R. (2008). Att platsa i en skola för alla. Elevhälsa och förhandling om normalitet i den svenska skolan (1st ed.). Norstedts akademiska förlag.
Iyengar, S., & Massey, S. D. (2019). Scientific Communication in a Post-truth Society. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, 116(16), 7656–7661.
Karlsson, Y. (2007). Att inte vilja vara problem. Social organisering och utvärdering av elever i en särskild undervisningsgrupp (Doctoral thesis, Linköping University).
Karlsson, Y. (2012). Barns aktörskap och identitetsarbete i en särskild undervisningsgrupp. Utbildning & Demokrati, 21(3), 35–52.
Nilholm, C. (2005). Inkludering av elever “i behov av särskilt stöd”: Vad betyder det och vad vet vi? Örebro University, Department of Education.
Severinsson, S. (2010). Unga i normalitetens gränsland: Undervisning och behandling i särskilda undervisningsgrupper och hem för vård eller boende (Doctoral thesis, Linköping University).
Skidmore, D. (2005). Inclusion, the Dynamic of School Development. Open University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mattsson, C. (2022). Caring for and Containing the Hateful Other: Schools’ Strategies to Deal with Students with Neo-Nazi Convictions. In: Hardie-Bick, J., Scott, S. (eds) Ex-treme Identities and Transitions Out of Extraordinary Roles. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93608-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93608-2_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-93607-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-93608-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)