Racist bullying and childhood marginalization in multicultural school settings

Evidence-based and resilience-oriented interventions in primary education

Bibliographic Data

ID22165270
AuthorsVassiliki Pliogou (0000-0002-1009-0287, Education and Early Childhood Development, corresponding author), Sophia Tromara (0000-0003-1847-8478, Education and Early Childhood Development)
Year2026
Volume10
Publication date2026-01-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2504-284X • E-ISSN: 2504-284X
PublisherFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/feduc.2025.1750921
OpenAlexW7124448879
LanguageEN
References cited48

Globalization and migration have reshaped the demographic and cultural composition of schools worldwide. While these changes offer opportunities for richer learning experiences, they also coincide with rising xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia, which threaten social cohesion, equity, and democratic values. Schools, as microcosms of society, often mirror these broader tensions, with racist bullying emerging as a critical challenge. This form of bullying targets students based on ethnic, racial, cultural, or immigrant backgrounds. Victims' experiences intersect with gender (Pliogou et al., 2025), socioeconomic status, and other social identities, which can exacerbate marginalization (Baah et al., 2019). Empirical evidence shows that immigrant and minority students are disproportionately affected compared to native peers (Košir et al., 2023;Basilici et al., 2022).Racist bullying affects not only victims but also perpetrators, bystanders, and the broader school community, shaping social norms, school climate, and collective identities (Moody & Stahel, 2025;O'Brien et al., 2024). Despite extensive research on general bullying (Zapata Celestino & Manríquez Madrigal, 2025; The Smile of the Child, 2023), racist bullying remains underexplored, particularly in primary education, often treated as a subcategory rather than a distinct phenomenon requiring targeted interventions (Sapouna et al., 2023;Nikolaou et al., 2019).Resilience-the capacity to adapt and thrive despite adversity-offers a promising lens for mitigating the impact of racist bullying (Masten et al., 2021;Ungar & Theron, 2020). By examining resilience at individual, relational, and systemic levels, teachers can foster protective and transformative environments that support identity development, social connectedness, and inclusion. The present article explores the complexity of racist bullying in primary education, identifies its driving factors, presents evidence-based interventions, and advocates for holistic, culturally responsive, and resilience-oriented approaches.Racist bullying mirrors unequal power relations, positioning minority students as "others" (O'Brien et al., 2024). Victims often experience emotional distress, threats to identity, social withdrawal, and reduced academic achievement, while perpetrators may internalize superiority narratives, limiting empathy and civic engagement (Moody & Stahel, 2025;Castleberry, 2022).Resilience operates ecologically through the interplay of individual strengths and contextual supports (Masten et al., 2021;Ungar & Theron, 2020). In racist bullying, resilience enables positive adaptation despite adversity, interacting across three levels. At the individual level, emotional regulation, self-efficacy, and problem-solving empower children to cope with discrimination. Interpersonally, supportive relationships with teachers and peers buffer psychological harm and foster belonging. Systemically, inclusive school climates, culturally responsive pedagogy, and community engagement create structural resilience against exclusion (Ungar et al., 2019).Indicatively, quantitative studies with Chinese primary students show that children with greater resilience scores are more likely to respond with positive, prosocial actions-supporting peers or seeking help-rather than dismissive or combative reactions (Lu et al., 2022). Many interventions, however, focus narrowly on personal coping while underemphasizing relational and structural dimensions, limiting their effectiveness in promoting belonging and mitigating marginalization (Brown et al., 2025). Despite these insights, early schooling, which is the period when social identities, empathy, and moral reasoning develop, is understudied, and younger children's vulnerabilities remain insufficiently understood (Scheel et al., 2024;Rodríguez-Hidalgo et al., 2019). Existing interventions frequently overlook racial and cultural dimensions, limiting long-term impact (Wu & Jia, 2023;Earnshaw et al., 2018). Racist bullying is often subsumed under "bias-based" aggression, which risks obscuring its unique social and structural dynamics and impedes targeted interventions (Bayram Özdemir et al., 2024).Racist bullying emerges from intersecting structural, interpersonal, and societal factors. Institutional inequalities, tracking practices, and limited minority representation in curricula reproduce racial hierarchies and normalize exclusion (Sapouna et al., 2023;Wills, 2019). At the interpersonal level, children internalize stereotypes from peers, family, and media, shaping discriminatory perceptions (Wu & Jia, 2023;Xu et al., 2020). School climate further mediates bullying: environments lacking anti-racist norms, culturally responsive teaching, or teacher intervention enable uncontrolled racist behavior (Sieben Aduful et al., 2025). Broader sociopolitical tensions, including rising xenophobia and polarized public discourse, filter into classrooms and shape racial identity construction (Huang et al., 2019;Bayram Özdemir et al., 2024). Collectively, these factors normalize racist attitudes and increase the possibility of targeted bullying.The impact of racist bullying is extensive. Victims experience diminished psychological wellbeing, self-esteem, trust in institutions, social withdrawal, and long-term disengagement (Xu et al., 2020). Perpetrators internalize stereotypes and antisocial norms, which can reduce school participation, impair academic achievement, and reinforce exclusionary identities (Jansen et al., 2016). Dual marginalization occurs as victims face rejection and invisibility, and perpetrators experience moral and social isolation, fostering school climates characterized by fear and division. Peer relationships suffer, with victims withdrawing and bystanders internalizing fear or apathy, weakening overall sense of belonging (Košir et al., 2023). Resilience-focused approaches can counter these outcomes by restoring social connection, empowering students to act as upstanders, and reinforcing collective responsibility.Interventions are most effective when they are culturally relevant, systemically integrated, and relationally focused. Whole-school approaches that engage students, teachers, leaders, parents, and communities have shown promise in addressing race and culture while fostering inclusion (Menesini & Salmivalli, 2017). Socio-emotional learning programs enhance perspective-taking and emotional literacy but are most effective when embedded in everyday classroom interactions (Wu & Jia, 2023).Culturally responsive pedagogy validates diverse identities, enhancing belonging and reducing stereotype-driven aggression (Earnshaw et al., 2018). Teacher professional development in bias recognition, intercultural dialogue, and conflict mediation equips educators to foster inclusive classrooms (Okagbue et al., 2022). Integrating anti-racist curricula and promoting school-wide anti-racist norms strengthens systemic resilience, enabling proactive inclusion (Hay et al., 2024). Approaches lacking cultural relevance or relying on punitive measures rarely achieve lasting impact (Hong et al., 2018).At a practical level, culturally responsive pedagogy can be implemented through curriculum content (i.e., using stories from students' cultural background especially in literacy classes), classroom examples, discussions, and assessments reflecting students' cultural backgrounds (Gay, 2018). Anti-racist curricula should explicitly address discrimination and social justice (for example through role-playing exercises), enabling students to recognize unfairness and engage inclusively (Sieben Aduful et al., 2025;Janssen et al., 2024). Teachers can support inclusion through multicultural literature, counter-stereotypical narratives, and inquiry-based discussions (Abdalla & Moussa, 2024;Samuels, 2018). Whole-school initiatives maintain anti-racist norms via shared messaging, inclusive visuals, and collective agreements as supported by the European Commission reports (2025).Sustained professional development translates these strategies into practice. Collaborative learning communities, case discussions, and reflective dialogues allow teachers to examine biases, share best practices, and co-develop responses to racist bullying (Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, 2024;Hay et al., 2024). Long-term, embedded professional learning, rather than one-off training, is essential to build teachers' capacity to recognize and respond to bias and foster systemic, equity-oriented change (Virella & Ayari, 2025;Legette et al., 2023).Addressing racist bullying requires coordinated, multi-level action that integrates policy, teacher education, leadership, and community engagement. Policies should define bias-based behaviors, establish reporting protocols, and mandate incident data collection to enable timely responses (Hall, 2017;Cornell & Limber, 2015). Teacher education must integrate intercultural competence and emotional well-being through structured coursework, reflective practice, and scenario-based training, equipping teachers to recognize, address, and discuss racist bullying effectively (Sieben Aduful et al., 2025;La Salle-Finley et al., 2024). Developing socio-emotional and intercultural competencies underpins inclusive pedagogy, while emotional competence training enhances teachers' capacity to manage classroom-climate and support student's well-being (Calandri et al., 2025;Skočić Mihić et al., 2024). Monitoring systems can include climate surveys, incident logs, and structured observations, identify trends, guide interventions, and track progress to ensure equitable educational outcomes for all children (Maryati et al., 2025;European Commission, 2025).School leadership is pivotal in shaping inclusive school culture because principals and administrators who model equitable practices, institutionalize inclusive policies, and establish safe reporting channels (Bahari et al., 2025) influence school norms, resource allocation, and expectations for staff and students. Prior research shows that equity-focused leaders set shared goals, enact clear anti-bias disciplinary codes, facilitate structured staff dialogues on race/ethnicity, and ensure systematic monitoring of school climate. All these reinforce that equity is central to the school's mission (Savvopoulos et al., 2024;Miller, 2023;Leithwood, 2021) Community engagement, including partnerships with families, NGOs, and local organizations, reinforces inclusive values, strengthens social cohesion, and complements school-based efforts (Ru et al., 2024;Radu, 2021). Community engagement can be strengthened through co-designed events with families, collaboration with cultural organizations, parent workshops on anti-bias socialization, and partnerships with NGOs offering mediation, language support, or multicultural resources, because as prior research shows that intentional, participatory family-school and community partnerships deepen trust, shared decision-making, and collective strategies that support inclusive and safe school environments (Markovich Morris & Cheng, 2025;Spruijt et al., 2022). By integrating individual, relational, and systemic strategies, schools can cultivate supportive communities that nurture empathy, belonging, and civic engagement.Racist bullying in primary education is a pressing social and educational issue, perpetuating inequity and social disintegration. Fragmented or narrowly focused interventions fail to address the structural and relational causes of exclusion. We argue that the most effective approach combines culturally responsive, resilience-oriented pedagogy with systemic, whole-school strategies that actively engage teachers, students, families, and communities. Teachers may serve as agents of change by integrating anti-racist content, fostering socio-emotional skills, modelling inclusive practices, and facilitating reflective dialogue. Primary education thus becomes a critical arena for early intervention, where exclusion can be transformed into opportunities for identity formation, social learning, and collective responsibility. This approach aligns also with SDG4 ("Quality Education") and SDG10 ("Reduced Inequalities"), reinforcing the need for equitable and inclusive learning environments. Anti-racist pedagogy addresses the structural conditions that perpetuate racial and cultural inequities by critically examining and transforming educational practices that reproduce discrimination and exclusion. Beyond its contribution to SDG 4, systemic resilience and anti-racist pedagogy directly support SDG 10 ("Reduced Inequalities") by confronting the institutional and cultural mechanisms that disproportionately disadvantage minority children. By challenging racialized stereotypes, creating equitable learning conditions, and fostering inclusive school cultures, these approaches help reduce early educational disparities that often evolve into long-term social inequities (Câmara, 2025)

Empirical research · Immigration · Psychological intervention · Psychological resilience · Social capital · Socioeconomic status · Transformative learning · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Education Discipline and Inequality · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research