Microaggressions can often fly under the radar in schools – here’s how to spot them.
Bullying is sadly a common experience for children and teenagers. The impacts can be far-reaching and include depression and anxiety, poorer school performance, and poorer connection to school.
In order to better prevent bullying in schools, we need a clear understanding of the full spectrum of aggressive behaviours that occur.
We already know bullying can be physical, verbal and social, and can occur in person and online. But there is less awareness among educators and policymakers of “microaggressions”. These can be more subtle but are nonetheless very damaging.
What’s the difference between bullying and microaggressions?
Bullying is unwanted aggressive behaviour by a person or group against a targeted victim, with the intent to harm. The behaviour is repeated and there is a power imbalance between the perpetrator and victim.
Microaggressions are a form of aggression that communicate a person is less valued because of a particular attribute – for example, their race, gender or disability.
Microaggressions are repeated, cumulative and reflect power imbalances between social groups. A key difference with traditional bullying is microaggressions are often unconscious on the part of the perpetrator – and can be perpetrated with no ill intent.
For example, traditional bullying could include a child always excluding another child from the group, always pushing them when they walk past them, or calling them a rude name. But microaggressions may be less obvious.
We don’t have specific statistics on the prevalence of microaggressions, although there is ample research to say those from minority groups frequently experience this behaviour.
For example, studies of young people in the United States found incidents of microaggressions, often focused on racism, homophobia, transphobia and fat stigma. Students who held more than one identity (for example, a minority race and sexual orientation), were more likely to be targets.
Microaggressions can be subtle but are nonetheless very damaging.
Microaggressions could include:
- Saying “You don’t look disabled” to a student with an invisible disability.
- Mispronouncing a student’s name with no attempt to correct the pronunciation.
- Saying “Wow, you’re so articulate” to a foreign student, implying surprise at their language skills.
- Minimising a student with disability’s experience by saying “It can’t be that difficult. Just try harder.”
Microaggressions in schools
Research on microaggressions and dyslexia has found both students and parents can be on the receiving end. Teachers, school support officers and other students could be perpetrators.
These interactions minimised the students’ experiences of dyslexia and made them feel like second class students compared to their peers.
Some of the children reported comments from peers such as “Oh yeah, reading, writing is hard already,” which minimised the difficulties caused by dyslexia. Another student recalled how a peer had corrected her spelling “by snatching my book and re-writing it”, assuming she couldn’t do it herself. One student was made to feel bad for using a laptop in class as “someone said it was cheating”.
The impact of microaggressions
Schools where microaggressions occur are not safe spaces for all students and this can have serious implications for students’ school attendance, harm their mental health and ability to learn and socialise.
Research on US university students showed many students may also become hypervigilant, waiting for future microaggressions to occur.
One Australian study found microaggressions can be so bad for some school students, they change schools in search of environments where staff and peers are more accepting.
How to address microaggressions
Research suggests addressing microaggressions can work as a prevention strategy to reduce other forms of bullying before it starts.
Studies also show that teacher awareness of microaggressions is key to preventing and addressing incidents.
So a first step is to make sure your child’s school and teachers are aware of microaggressions and that they know the relationship between microaggressions and bullying.
Schools need to create environments where microaggressions are understood, recognised and addressed. All students need to be taught how to respond appropriately as bystanders if they see microaggressions happening in the classroom, playground or online. Schools also need proactive programmes to foster inclusion. If your child feels that they or a friend has been made to feel less because of their identity, then they should be encouraged to seek help from an appropriate adult.
BY RACHEL LEASK, LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND.
PUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE CONVERSATION.
