Hate speech – a school problem? A combined student and teacher study on the relevance, frequency, and determinants of the hate speech phenomenon in schools and how to deal with it

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Hate speech has become a societal and educational challenge that even schools can no longer ignore. Approximately 90% of adolescents have already experienced hatred on the Internet (state media authority of Nord Rhine-Westphalia 2017). Although hatred directed at certain groups is nothing new – e.g. due to their origin, skin colour or sexual orientation – it has clearly reached a new dimension as an everyday phenomenon. Schools and their educational mission face a double challenge: On the one hand, hate speech is not just an online phenomenon, it can also affect coexistence at school. On the other hand, as a democracy-fostering authority, schools are predestined to counter hate speech by teaching appropriate skills. However, there is still a lack of well-founded knowledge about hate speech among school pupils and about the role of teachers.This is where the project comes in, exploring hate speech from a pupil and teacher perspective for the first time. The objective is to investigate this phenomenon – which has received a great deal of media attention – in a school environment. We understand hate speech as a communicative form of expression with a message (e.g. writing, speaking, videos) that purposely promotes, justifies or disseminates the exclusion, contempt, and devaluation of certain groups of the population, thus violating, diminishing or humiliating them in a discriminatory manner with respect to their dignity. The study will focus on the relevance, frequency, and determinants of hate speech in schools as well as how this is dealt with. This includes the question of the specificity of hate speech and how it differs from related phenomena such as verbal violence or cyberbullying.The project includes a qualitative preliminary study, a tablet-based quantitative and experimental study of pupils and a questionnaire survey of teachers. The purpose of the preliminary study is to take stock of the forms of hate speech and reaction patterns common among pupils. The instruments developed on this basis are to be used in the main study with around 2,000 pupils in years seven to nine and 450 teachers at 18 schools in Berlin and Brandenburg. The focus will be on the intrapersonal, interpersonal and contextual determinants of involvement and responses to hate speech from a perspective of pupils and teachers. The experimental study serves to investigate the influence of teachers on how pupils deal with hate speech.The project closes gaps in research on violence, discrimination, and prejudice. It is also intended to facilitate the development of school-based approaches to intervention and prevention, thereby promoting democratic coexistence in a pluralistic society.