Staff perspectives on victimisation in multi-ethnic Chilean elementary schools

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper draws on qualitative interviews conducted with school staff in four multi-ethnic urban public schools in Santiago, Chile, to provide a sociological analysis of common-sense constructs surrounding victimisation. The questions guiding the study were to what extent school staff share similar perspectives toward victimisation (as demonstrative of a school culture), and how this impacts the capacity to generate positive school climates in multi-ethnic elementary urban schools in Santiago. Drawing on theories of school culture, I propose that staff members’ abilities and willingness to identify and implement preventive measures in schools are collectively defined and legitimated. I demonstrate that this has important repercussions in contexts of higher-than-average ethnic compositions where assimilation is encouraged, and victimisation is denied or attributed to other causes. Symbolic and superficial celebrations of multiculturalism are common, but cultural discourses of difference maintain ethnic youth in marginalised positions and prevent more inclusive educational practices. Some staff perspectives adhere to colour-blind liberal forms of racism in these contexts, and these are most common in school cultures where victimisation is downplayed or thought to be an issue cultivated in the home. Recommendations are made to incorporate culturally-sensitive pedagogies and cultural mediators to confront these narratives among school climate committees.