In Germany and continental Europe, more broadly, race and ethnicity are concepts that are not widely used and are increasingly erased from the legislation. Nevertheless, race and ethnicity are still used as social markers and often merely replaced with other terms (e.g., cultural background). The goal of this paper is threefold. First, we point to the danger of treating race and ethnicity as essentialist categories, which is still common in developmental science research. Second, we want to outline specific problems that occur when doing research on ethnicity and race with children and adolescents in the European race-mute context. Third, we suggest that future research ought to focus more on constructions of Whiteness and reproduction of power differences among ethnic majority populations. In doing so, we draw on examples from our own research on ethnic-racial identity and ethnic-racial socialization.
In Germany and continental Europe more broadly race and ethnicity are concepts that are not widely used and increasingly erased from legislation. Nevertheless, race and ethnicity are still used as social markers and often merely replaced with other terms (e.g., cultural background). The goal of this paper is threefold. First, we point to the danger of treating race and ethnicity as essentialist categories, which is still common in developmental science research. Second, we want to outline specific problems that occur when doing research on ethnicity and race with children and adolescents in the European race-mute context. Third, we suggest that future research ought to focus more on constructions of Whiteness and reproduction of power differences among ethnic majority populations. In doing so, we draw on examples from our own research on ethnic-racial identity and ethnic-racial socialization.
Bruneau's work repeatedly focused on the Roma minority, worldwide, one of the most dehumanized ethnic groups. In a preregistered design, we replicated one of his previous studies (Bruneau et al., 2020) in a different national context (i.e., Germany) in testing the hypotheses that preservice teachers make biased educational-track recommendations discriminating against Romani students and that infrahumanization drives this behavior. In line with Bruneau et al.'s (2020) work, preservice teachers judged placing selfidentified Romani students into lower educational tracks as more appropriate than self-identified Turkishorigin and German students, despite equal academic performance. Although participants infrahumanized Romani students at greater levels compared to non-Romani students, in contrast to the Bruneau et al.'s (2020) study, educational-track recommendations were positively associated with affective prejudice but not with infrahumanization. These findings extend Bruneau's insights on dehumanization, prejudice, and discrimination against people of Romani background, highlighting the role of the social context in which these associations are studied.
Public Significance StatementThis study suggests that preservice teachers in Germany are biased against Romani students because they judged placing self-identified Romani students into lower educational tracks as more appropriate than non-Romani students despite equal competencies. This bias is more common among those preservice teachers who harbor colder feelings toward Romani students.
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