Avoidant Pedagogy: Swiss and Israeli Teachers’ Handling of Religiously Offensive Remarks in Class

Abstract

The study examines teachers' positions when presented with a vignette regarding religiously offensive remarks. In-depth interviews were conducted with six Swiss and six Israeli female elementary school teachers. The findings demonstrated that teachers in both countries fluctuated between inclination to say that all opinions were acceptable, on the one hand, and drawing a line in the sand against religious intolerance, on the other. Only three teachers said that they would be clear that the remark in the vignette is prohibited. Teachers' dilemmas in the two countries were similar as were the strategies they chose. Teachers tended to flatten and oversimplify the discourse, considered students' subjective experience as indisputable, and avoided tackling prejudiced comments directly. Many teachers missed an opportunity to expose the power relations in society and to help develop students' critical thinking skills. Teachers' disbelief of students' remarks implies that many do not understand the way racism works or their role in preventing religious intolerance from an early age.