Teacher Trade Union Delegation to Saxony - Against the Far-right in Schools

The project aims to create dialogue between UK and German teacher union activists as we explore how teachers are facing up to the challenge of far-right narratives being repeated and promoted by children and young people in the classroom. The project focuses on an exchange between teachers working in the Black Country, West Midlands in the UK and Leipzig, Saxony in Germany.

In late May 2024, the first part of the exchange took place with five teachers from schools in the Black Country visiting the German state of Saxony to meet with their German counterparts and explore the challenges that Germany is facing from the far-right, and how this is resonating in the German school system. The delegation visited schools, received input from anti-racist civil society organisations, and engaged in cross-union exchange on various areas of practice, policy and experience. Delegates discussed safeguarding, the weaponisation of mandatory political neutrality for teachers, and shared experiences on dealing with racist, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ behaviour among pupils.

The aim of this international dialogue is to explore areas of common and divergent practice, in order to produce a strategy for dealing with, and preventing, the influence that the far-right is exerting over children in the UK and Germany.

The follow-up trip takes place in October 2024, when a delegation of German educators will travel to the Black Country to exchange with their comrades there.