‘Seeing Whiteness’ in Norwegian education challenging a discourse of silence

Abstract

Employing a systematic literature review, this study explores research into whiteness studies in Norwegian education. Whiteness is broached as a sociogenic rather than a phylogenic phenomenon homologous with constructed social categories such as class. The review shows a preponderance of a tiny number of academics studying whiteness, reticence and discomfort in grappling with white privilege and a hierarchy of whiteness where the indigenous Sami and East Europeans are relegated to a lower tier of whiteness – what we refer to as ‘shades of whiteness’. Teacher education courses need to furnish student teachers with analytical tools developed by scholars in the field of whiteness studies. We also drawn attention to the attendant challenge of exploring ways of identifying and redressing the deleterious effects of an internalized discourse of white supremacy on the part of non-white students. This would go some way in grappling with the imbricated and matrix-like nature of whiteness.