Å se skjult rasisme i norsk akademia:

den ubehagelige samtalen

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.6075

Keywords:

race, institutionalized whiteness, autoethnography, positionality

Abstract

This article critically examines the reproduction of institutionalized whiteness in Norwegian academia and higher education. Employing autoethnography, the authors delve into their own racialized positionalities as researchers and educators in Early Childhood Education, reveling their entanglement in a specific pedagogical legacy that emphasizes White supremacist epistemologies and ontologies. The authors argue that this contextual reality is saturated in a color-evasive (Annamma et al., 2017) discourse where race often becomes obscured. Despite the continued influence of racialization processes on people’s life prospects, reinforcing inclusion and exclusion dynamics, Norwegian researchers, teachers, and students notably lack a language for discussing race. This article explores the potential and limitations of developing such a language to expand the discourse on race and racism in Norway. By scrutinizing the volatile and dynamic insider/outsider continuum, the authors contend that institutional whiteness must be critically examined through a decolonial lens, considering Nordic exceptionalism and color-evasiveness. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s phenomenological conceptualization of institutional whiteness, the article conducts a critical investigation into how conversations about race are obscured in Norwegian higher education, particularly within Early Childhood Education. The authors engage in an autoethnographic account of how racism and institutionalized whiteness materializes in Norwegian academic spaces. Our utilization of autoethnography in the form of a conversational exchange serves to exemplify a methodological approach for articulating discussions on race, white privilege, and associated themes in the Norwegian context. This dialogue offers not only a template for navigating conversations within a discourse of color-evasiveness and race evasiveness but also underscores the inherent challenges and necessity for thorough reflexivity in such dialogues.

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2025-05-12

How to Cite

Baugerud, T., & Ahmed, U. (2025). Å se skjult rasisme i norsk akademia:: den ubehagelige samtalen. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.6075

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