This blog is from a speaker at our 44th COBIS Annual Conference, Michael Neumann, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Coordinator at St. George's International School, Luxembourg, COBIS Accredited Member (BSO).You can attend his session at our conference in London, 9-11 May 2026. Book your place now.

Schools as Sites of Difference

Schools are often described as microcosms of society, reflecting the identities, values, and social dynamics of the communities around them. They can also unintentionally reinforce social differences through everyday practices that many of us rarely stop to question. How schools reinforce difference is complex and nuanced. It is rarely clear cut, often depends on context, and should be considered from multiple perspectives.

This session introduces a practical tool that invites leaders and educators to pause and critically reflect on how schools recognise and reinforce social differences.

Recording and Recognising Difference

Think about how your school records gender when creating class lists. Many schools aim to balance classes by gender. In some schools this may be an explicit decision, while in others it may simply be an unwritten rule that teachers follow.

How is this practice approached in your school? Who makes these decisions? What is the purpose behind them? What conversations take place about why gender is considered in this process?

These decisions often feel routine, yet they raise important questions. Why do we make these choices? What assumptions sit behind them? What do these decisions communicate about difference and belonging?

Now consider the same question through a different lens. Should students’ race be recorded and taken into account when making class lists? Would schools feel comfortable organising lists in this way?

We can extend this thinking further. How do schools record and respond to language needs? How do they recognise neurodiversity? How are different identifiers used across school systems to understand students and organise learning?

Schools often rely on categories such as gender, race, nationality, language background, and learning needs. At times these identifiers help educators better support students. At other times they can unintentionally create barriers or reinforce narrow ways of understanding who students are and how they belong.

This approach draws on the idea of juxtaposition. Juxtaposition places ideas side by side so we can compare them and examine their similarities and differences. When educators juxtapose different identities and practices, familiar routines can begin to look very different.

This exercise invites educators to create friction in their thinking about practices that may feel routine in one context but uncomfortable in another. Through this process, participants are encouraged to reflect critically on how their schools reinforce social differences.

Where the Idea Began

The idea for this exercise first emerged more than a decade ago. As teachers at my school were setting up their classrooms for the new academic year, one of my coworkers created gender specific labels on each of their students’ desks. The boys had blue name tags and the girls had pink ones.

Through several friendly conversations, I tried to help my coworker recognise how this practice reinforced stereotypes associated with being a boy or a girl. After trying and failing to convince them that these labels might be problematic, I asked a different question. Would they consider creating labels for students based on race, such as different labels for White, Black, and Asian students?

My coworker immediately responded that they would never do that because it would be racist. When asked to explain their reasoning, they argued that racial labels could reinforce the idea that people are different because of race, and that not all students can easily be divided into racial categories.

Using this reasoning, I asked why the same logic was not being applied to gender, and whether reinforcing gender differences in this way could also be considered problematic. The teacher paused. After several earlier conversations had led nowhere, it felt like they were finally reconsidering the practice and beginning to understand why these gender specific labels might be unnecessary.

Since then, I have used this strategy in various contexts to encourage educators to critically reflect on the ways schools reinforce social differences, particularly binary gender differences.

I later explored this idea further during my Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Toronto. My research examined a two month professional development project with 36 elementary school teachers at an international school in Malta. During this action research project, teachers explored the opportunities and limitations of this strategy as a tool to help them reflect on, assess, and potentially change practices that reinforce binary gender differences and stereotypes. The study examined how juxtaposing gender and race could support educators in thinking more critically about the ways schools reinforce social difference.

Since then, I have been fortunate to share this strategy with a range of schools and educators, supporting critical reflection, discussion, and shifts in practice around how schools recognise and reinforce social differences.

What Happens in the Workshop

This session invites participants to engage with this approach directly.

During the workshop, participants will explore scenarios drawn from everyday school life that examine practices related to gender, race, religion, nationality, language, and neurodiversity. Participants will reflect on how schools record information about students, how that information is used in decision making, and what messages these practices might communicate about identity and belonging.

Working in groups, participants will place different practices side by side and explore their similarities and differences. Through discussion, they will examine what feels comfortable, what feels challenging, and what these reactions reveal about the assumptions that shape school systems.

The goal of the exercise is not to provide simple answers. Instead, it creates space for thoughtful reflection. Schools operate in complex environments where decisions about identity, data, and student support are rarely straightforward. By juxtaposing different practices, educators can better understand the values and assumptions influencing their decisions.

By the end of the session, participants will leave with a practical strategy they can bring back to their own schools. The juxtaposition exercise offers a structured way to facilitate conversations about identity, equity, and inclusion while helping educators think more critically about how everyday school practices shape students’ experiences of difference, belonging, and opportunity.

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