Zenia Hellgren, a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration (GRITIM-UPF), will be the principal investigator for the research-action project “REACT: Research-Action against Antigypsyism and Anti-Muslim Discrimination: An Intersectional Approach to Deconstruct Institutional Racism in Schools”, focusing on Catalonia, which aims to analyse the subtle forms of exclusion suffered by Roma and Muslim teens in the school environment.

REACT, which receives funding from the European Union’s CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights, Values) programme, kicked off on 1 December 2022 and will run for 24 months. It is partnered by two civil society entities: Rromane Siklovne (Roma students) and SAFI (Stop Islamophobic Phenomena). Barcelona City Council and the Catalan Government are the partner institutions.   

“It is important to underline that this project understands ‘racism’ in a very broad sense”

“It is important to underline that this project understands ‘racism’ in a very broad sense”, Zenia Hellgren explains. According to the GRITIM-UPF researcher , “racist experiences in the school environment suffered by students of various origins may consist of direct expressions, for example negative comments or insults in the playground, but also being invisible or represented in a stereotypical way, or not receiving the same academic support as the other students”.

Analysis of “unconscious bias” and subtle prejudice

The REACT project will look into subtle forms of exclusion and “native preference”, which can become major barriers for students of minority backgrounds. Specifically, this project focuses on two groups that existing research deems to be among the most disadvantaged, with high failure rates at school and among those most affected by racism in society in general: Roma and Muslim students.

“It is known that there is an ethnic origin factor that seriously affects school failure, and therefore future opportunities, but it has not been thoroughly explored whether and how racism and discrimination can affect this, and how it is experienced in schools. We understand racism as a structural phenomenon, and schools as a particularly key environment to break, or perpetuate, the social exclusion faced by many students from diverse backgrounds”, the REACT lead researcher comments.

Zenia Hellgren stresses that it is not a question of insinuating or assuming that schools or educational staff are racist: “What we do want to do is study so-called ‘unconscious bias’ and how these subtle prejudices can lead to differentiating behaviour by teaching staff, such as giving less academic support or having lower expectations of students from minorities, or talking about migration in class in a certain way. In our previous projects we found, for example, that in schools almost no mention was made of the history of the Roma people in Spain, and Roma students felt that only negative references were made to their ethnicity”, she says.

Intersectional research with a participatory action-research methodology

The research approach of the REACT project, which is to receive total funding of some 275,000 euros, is fundamentally intersectional, integral and innovative, focusing on racism and discrimination based on racial or ethnic traits, origin, or religion, at the intersection with gender identity (or sexual identity, depending on the nature of the students of the participating minorities). It also takes into account how the family’s socio-economic situation affects the students’ experiences. Many Roma or Muslim students belong to low-income families and, as the researcher argues in a recent article (Racialization and Aporophobia), “prejudices about ethnicity are often mixed with those of social class”.

"The idea is to include these diverse perspectives to understand how prejudices work and what possibilities exist to dispel them, and build bridges between schools and families of minority and majority origin"

REACT will apply a PAR (participatory research-action) methodology, in the same line as two previous projects led by Zenia Hellgren, whose main thread concerns educational inclusion and discrimination experienced by Roma people. Thus, the research that is now beginning will work with the various study groups –Roma and Muslim students of ESO and their families; students of national origin and ethnic majority and their families; teaching staff, and a reference group consisting of young adult Roma and Muslims who have studied at university – through a series of focus groups and workshops, the analysis of educational content, and in-depth interviews. 

The idea is to include these diverse perspectives to understand how prejudices work and what possibilities exist to dispel them, and build bridges between schools and families of minority and majority origin. Knowledge of the mechanisms of unconscious bias and of “everyday racism” generated by REACT will be transferred internationally through the European networks developed as part of the project.

Expert in the analysis of inclusion and exclusion in ethnically diverse societies

Zenia Hellgren holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Stockholm (Sweden) and since 2016 she has been a researcher with the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University, linked to the Interdisciplinary Group on Immigration Research (GRITIM-UPF). Her research on inclusion and exclusion in ethnically diverse societies places special emphasis on the everyday, subtle dimensions of barriers to inclusion, such as racism and discrimination, and how these “microaggressions” belong to structures that affect the opportunities and sense of belonging of immigrants and minorities.

Zenia Hellgren has led three previous European projects on these issues, including the Marie S. Curie Individual Fellowship “REPCAT: The Role of the Ethnic Majority in Integration Processes: Attitudes and Practices towards Immigrants in Catalan Institutions”. REACT builds on the results of these previous projects.