The hateful other: neo-Nazis in school and teachers’ strategies for handling racism

Abstract

Research has shown that a young person’s situation at school, and pupils’ relationships with their teachers, have a clear impact on the processes which lead to young people being radicalized. The present study is a retrospective study based on interviews with former neo-Nazis and their teachers at the time when they became involved in neo-Nazi organizations or milieus in Sweden. In order to better understand the logics of pedagogy and what their teachers’ decisions to intervene and to confront their extremist beliefs and lifestyles led to, we focus on a particular case study. The results show that teachers’ attempts to isolate these students, and thereby contain the “problem”, failed. Confrontations and strategies designed to discipline the students instead led to resistance and stigmatization. Reflecting upon this situation today, both students and teachers agree that these confrontational strategies fueled the radicalization process.