When police students are educated at school about prejudices working against prejudices are made central for becoming a professional officer serving in a multicultural society. This is stressed in relation to a tendency for officers to develop cynicism towards certain groups in society on the basis of work experience. Analyzing police trainee discourses on prejudice at school and after probationary service, this paper shows how the prejudice discourse of police work shifts depending on institutional and educational context. The analysis is based on field studies at the Swedish National Police Academy and on focus group interviews with police students in the school context (semester 4) and at the end of their probationary service (semester 5). When students have been on probationary service the hegemonic discourse of prejudice is to work on the basis of them. The school is made into an arena of political correctness where utopian ideals of society and modern police work are challenged by the perceived realities of policing. Prejudice as a concept is contested and what is prejudice to others is regarded as experiences and facts useful for policing, hence legitimizing, for example, ethnic profiling. This discourse is reinforced by a surrounding notion of reality based knowledge as a more legitimate source of knowledge, transferred by older and experienced colleagues and supervisors.
The paper contributes to the field of adult education and learning by combining professional ethics, learning in professions and how formal and informal knowledge is reproduced in professional education. Moreover, it highlights the significance of hierarchical structures in relation to professional learning.