The Speak Out Against Racism (SOAR) project is the first large-scale population-representative study in experiences and attitudes to racism and racial bullying, and on bystander responses to racism and racial discrimination among Australian students in government schools in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria.

SOAR consists of two components:

• a population-representative survey on the experiences, attitudes and intended behaviours of year 5–9 students in NSW and Victorian schools, and their teachers, in relation to racism and racial bullying, prosocial behaviour, bystander responses, health and wellbeing, and school connectedness
• piloting and evaluation of a school-based bystander intervention program to encourage students and teachers to act when they witness racism and racial bullying

This report presents findings of SOAR’s first component.

Key findings:

• Just over half the student participants and their parents were born in Australia
• Students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, and from ethnic minority backgrounds were two times more likely to report experiences of racial discrimination compared to students from Anglo-Celtic backgrounds overall
• Students born overseas reported two times more experiences of racial discrimination than students born in Australia
• Close to 20% of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds reported experiences of racial discrimination from their teachers, and among ethnic minority students 18-30% of students reported these experiences with the highest levels among those from Middle Eastern and African backgrounds