In this chapter I want to look at manifestations of racism and sexism in the primary classroom.

It is conventional to begin by defining terms, although even that is not easy here. Racism and sexism are sometimes used as mere synonyms for discrimination and prejudice; there are at the other extreme sometimes intricate debates as to, for example, the difference between racism and racialism, and whether one refers to attitudes and the other to actual behaviour (Jeffcoate, 1985), or whether one relates to institutional and the other to personal treatment (Kumria, 1986). I suspect that we all carry around our own working definitions, and recognize different things as instances; so I shall simply provide one definition, to show where I begin from, but without any claims to universality. Racism or sexism (or indeed classism) I see as the individual, collective or institutional treatment of, or attitudes towards people based on shared stereotypes which are oppressive or limiting, and do not recognize people’s complex identity.