Check Your Privilege - Anti-Bias for School Practice. Concept and résumé of an anti-discriminatory seminar in teacher education.

The Anti-Bias Approach and its Relevance for School Practice School and university are institutions in which social orders of difference and relations of inequality, normative expectations of ability and powerful orders of knowledge are (re)produced and negotiated. In meritocratic societies, power-stabilizing reasons for social inequality are systematically obscured, and responsibility for failure is wrongly attributed to the individual. Thus, there is need for spaces in teacher education in which aspects of social inequality and societal power relations are addressed in order to make progress towards equal opportunities and a critique of discrimination in inclusive pedagogy. With the intersectionally oriented Anti-Bias approach, a pedagogical concept is presented that attempts to meet these requirements. The approach illuminates institutional and societal inequalities, addresses one’s own positioning and entanglements in power relations, aims at the dismantling of discrimination and provides teacher education with the basis for "justice- and democracy-oriented pedagogical professionalism" (Panesar, 2022, p. 16, author´s translation).   This Contribution presents the concept of an Anti-Bias seminar given in the teacher education program at Leibniz Universität Hannover. In our contribution we will combine theoretical input and participative self-experience. In order to let the audience experience the processes of self-reflection during the seminar, we integrate some of the practical methods in our contribution. Accordingly we focus on the methodical realisation.   Seminar in Teacher Education: Setup and Experiences The presented seminar was carried out in the winter semester 2021/2022 with students of teaching. The concept is based on the Anti-Bias approach (Anti-Bias-Netz, 2021) and theoretical approaches to constructions of difference and power-critical considerations. Accordingly the seminar aims to combine basics of critical social theory and self-reflection. For two weekends, the students intensively dealt with the contents and ideas of Anti-Bias work. The outcome of the trustful and cooperative working atmosphere was a "self-reflective, experiential and (scientifically) theoretical examination of identities and affiliations to different reference groups, personal identity, individual and collective prejudices, (internalized) social power relations and the resulting discrimination or privileging" (Boskany & Schafferschik, 2022, p. 344, author´s translation). Following Panesar (2022, p. 49, author´s translation), the seminar aimed to "jointly develop alternative forms of behavior, overcome patterns of internalized dominance and oppression, and practice non-discriminatory behavior in the educational work environment". We present the contents covered and the methods used in the seminar – in line with and complementing existing concepts of Anti-Bias work. The résumé shows the relevance of the seminar – currently filling a large gap in teacher education.   Interaction & Discussion Although the relevance of seminars like this seems to be undisputed, the contents and methods could certainly be reflected upon, discussed and expanded. Also, the question occurs how institutional framework conditions could support the implementation and establishment of a seminar like this.   References Anti-Bias-Netz (2021). Vorurteilsbewusste Veränderungen mit dem Anti-Bias-Ansatz (2. Aufl.). Freiburg im Breisgau: Lambertus. Boskany, Jaar & Schafferschik, Alisa (2022): Das aktuelle Thema: Anti-Bias in der Lehrkräftebildung. In: Sonderpädagogische Förderung heute, 66. Jg., H. 4; S. 343-344. Panesar, Rita (2022): Gerechte Schule. Vorurteilsbewusste Schulentwicklung mit dem Anti-Bias-Ansatz. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.