Bridging Gaps – Addressing Racism in Australian Schools
The first seminar in the series focused on tackling racism in schools. The panel featured youth advocate Yeshal Mansoor, the Australian Human Rights Commission and CMY’s Schools Standing Up to Racism program leaders, whose insights highlight the urgent need for national frameworks and stronger support for educators.
Panel Speakers
Yeshal Mansoor
Youth Advocate & Founder of Yes Help Network
Yeshal is a youth advocate and community leader passionate about inclusion, wellbeing and social justice. She is the founder of Yes Help Network, a platform for community connection and wellbeing. Yeshal has led community discussions and workshops exploring identity, belonging and stigma in school and community settings, and worked with organisations such as headspace, The Y NSW, SXSW Sydney, Educaid, The ASE Group and local councils to deliver programs that promote inclusion and wellbeing.
Rathy Srikanthan
Manager – Public Awareness and Education, National Anti-Racism Strategy Race Discrimination Team, the Australian Human Rights Commission
Rathy is the Manager of Public Education and Awareness within the Race Discrimination Team at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Prior to this role, she worked as a researcher, communications professional, and advisor in labour rights. She began her career as a primary school teacher in Western Sydney.
Chelsea King
Senior Practitioner of Sector Capability Building – Centre for Multicultural Youth
Chelsea is dedicated to professional development and capacity building, with a focus on anti-racism and culturally responsive practice. With over a decade of experience, she brings lived experience, sector expertise, and a strong commitment to inclusion.
Augusta Zeeng
Project Officer for MY Education team – Centre for Multicultural Youth
Augusta is an experienced education professional and Project Officer at CMY. She co-leads the Schools Standing Up to Racism initiative and supports school partnerships through the Refugee Education Support Program. Augusta is also a published author, education consultant, and sector advisor on inclusive practice.
Insights from the seminar
Racism continues to be a pervasive issue in the education system, creating barriers to belonging, engagement, and success for students from diverse backgrounds. In this seminar, a panel of educators, youth advocates, and representatives from the Australian Human Rights Commission shared their insights on the challenges schools face and the strategies needed to create truly inclusive, anti-racist learning environments.
Some of the critical ways in which anti-racism work can be platformed, driven by lived experience and incorporates the voices of young people are highlighted below.
1. Centering Student Voices and Experiences
A common thread throughout the discussion was the critical importance of centering the lived experiences of students, especially those from marginalised communities. As youth advocate Yeshal shared, her own struggles with feeling different and unsupported in the education system motivated her to become an advocate, ensuring young people feel “seen, supported, and valued.”
Educators emphasised that solutions to racism in schools must be informed by the perspectives and realities of the students themselves, not just top-down policies. This means actively involving young people in the design and implementation of anti-racism initiatives, rather than treating them as passive recipients.
2. Building Educator Capacity
Another key focus was the need to invest in building educators’ confidence, cultural awareness, and skills to connect with and support all students. As Rathi from the Human Rights Commission noted, mandatory anti-racism training for school staff is essential, equipping them with the tools and knowledge to identify and respond to racism.
Importantly, this capacity-building cannot be a one-off exercise. Schools must embed ongoing professional development and reflection opportunities to ensure anti-racism remains a core part of everyday practice, not just a checkbox.
3. Systemic, Whole-School Approach
Addressing racism in schools requires a systemic, whole-school approach, moving beyond isolated events or initiatives. As Chelsea and Augusta from the Centre for Multicultural Youth emphasised, anti-racism work must be “embedded daily” in school policies, curricula, and culture.
This means establishing clear accountability measures, such as data collection and reporting, to track progress. It also requires schools to look inward, examining their own practices and structures that may be perpetuating racism, rather than just focusing on student-to-student incidents.
4. Collaboration and Community Engagement
Crucially, schools cannot tackle racism alone. Effective anti-racism efforts must involve collaboration with community organisations, elders, and young people themselves. As Yeshal noted, “when we centre belonging and youth voices, we’re creating education that works for everyone.”
By building these partnerships, schools can ensure their anti-racism initiatives are culturally relevant, responsive to local needs, and empowering for the communities they serve.
The Way Forward
The seminar highlighted the urgent need for a coordinated, national approach to addressing racism in schools. This includes the development of comprehensive anti-racism frameworks and policies to guide and support schools in their efforts.
Importantly, this work must be accompanied by practical resources, training, and ongoing support for schools. As the panellists emphasised, tackling racism in education is complex and challenging, but the rewards of creating truly inclusive, equitable learning environments are immense.
By centering student voices, building educator capacity, taking a systemic approach, and fostering community collaboration, schools can become powerful agents of change, dismantling the barriers that have long prevented too many young people from reaching their full potential.