Multiculturalism and the Impacts on
Education Policy in England
Dr. Richard Race
Debating Multiculturalism Discussion Series – Dialogue Society.
Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture, Regent’s Park College,
Oxford University.
24th April 2013
E Mail: r.race@roehampton.ac.uk
Contexts
• Research which addressed multiculturalism but focused on
integration (Eade et al, 2008; Race, 2011; Race and Lander,
forthcoming).
• Is Multiculturalism Dead? – Trevor Phillips (2005), post 7/7.
• English and European Politics – Merkel; Cameron; Clegg
(November 2010-March 2011) – return to integration; [failure of]
“state multiculturalism”; importance of recognising cultural diversity
(Race, 2011).
• The Multiculturalism Backlash (Vertovec and Wessendorf, 2010) is a
European, political movement away from multiculturalism towards
integration, visible in Germany and England.
• English Riots – 1981, Tottenham 1985 and August 2011. David
Starkey – “if all the people of this country … are to enter fully into
our national story … they must do so on terms of reciprocity” (Daily
Telegraph, 20/08/11)
• Defending and Debating Multiculturalism (Mahamdallie, 2011;
Rattansi, 2011; Garner and Kavak, 2012; Cantle, 2012; Wright et al,
2012; Modood, 2013).
Multiculturalism
• At this stage, let us reassert the Canadian state
position of a multiculturalism that promotes
equal rights and discourages discrimination,
agree with Banks and Banks that multiculturalism
cannot be thought as a single concept which is
socially on its own, and also agree with Parekh
and his claim that multiculturalism is both plural
and fluid which recognises that cultural diversity
is constantly changing.
Race, 2011: 5
Integration
• A conditional two way relationship between
the state on the one hand and the individual
and community on the other. The state will
influence and shape the policy-making process
and will therefore influence how individuals
and communities are shaped and therefore
socially and culturally exist.
Race, 2011
The history of integration and multicultural
education policy in England
Integration
• Education of Immigrants
(DES: 1965; 1971)
• Plowden Report (DES: 1967)
• Citizenship Curriculum
(QDA, 1998; QCDA, 2010)
• Every Child Matters (HO:
2003; DfES, 2004)
• Ajegbo Report (DfES, 2007)
• Academy Schools (Gunter,
2011; Adonis, 2012)
Multiculturalism
• Rampton Report (DES:
1981)
• Swann Report (DES: 1985)
• Citizenship Curriculum
(QCDA, 2010); Education
Act (DfE, 2011).
Reflections on Multiculturalism and
Education (1)
Multicultural education … needs to depend on:
• Method – how practice allows students to
talk, think and reflect;
• Depth – practice needs to avoid the tokenistic.
Stereotyping needs to be avoided at all costs;
• Reach – practice needs to be international
rather than national.
Race, 2011: 96
Reflections on Multiculturalism and
Education (2)
… the importance of awareness training and CPD
for [all] practitioners in education. An inclusive,
multicultural, anti-racist programme of lifelong
learning has to continue to raise social and cultural
issues that concern e.g. racism and discrimination.
The citizenship curriculum [underlines] the
possibilities of a pluralistic, human rights based
curriculum which can raise awareness [and
understandings] of multiculturalism within
education
Race, 2011: 113
Reflections on Multiculturalism and
Education (3)
• [The subject of Citizenship] … many pre-2002 teachers
are ‘unsure’ of citizenship because they have not been
taught how to teach the subject … with the nonstatutory nature of citizenship education in primary
schools, the number of citizenship teachers who would
have had the training of CPD would have been
minimal. More teachers and specialists in citizenship
were required. As the [Ajegbo] report acknowledges,
coverage, meaning how the subject was taught and by
whom, lacks not only conceptual depth but both
teachers and students need to be engaged with
relevant subject material.
Race, 2011: 102
Multicultural Present
• The continuing strength of multicultural education
does tend to reside outside of England in the United
States but the issue of diverse and citizenship based
education systems tend to provide opportunities for
culturally diverse education. The Ajegbo Report (DfES,
2007) underlined the need to make the national
curriculum … more diverse and, as a consequence,
allow issues … on difference, bullying and racism to be
researched and debated in classrooms [and lecture
theatres].
Race, 2011: 114
Integration
Integration is achieved when neighbourhoods, families
and individuals come together on issues which matter to
them, and so we are committed to rebalancing activity
from centrally-led to locally-led action and from the
public to the voluntary and private sectors … Integration
benefits us all, and extremism and intolerance undermine
this as they promote fear and division. An integrated
society may be better equipped to reject extremism and
marginalise extremists.
Department of Communities and Local Government
(DCLG), 2012: 2
Multiculturalism and the Impacts on
Education Policy in England
• Multiculturalism – Integration.
• Education Policy and Practice – what now?
• CPD – Staff Diversity and Awareness Training (Race and
Lander, forthcoming).
• Multiculturalism – very important to rethink and apply
today to what is going on socially, culturally and
educationally. But, it is one of many concepts that need
to be examined to increase our understandings of
society, cultures and education (May and Sleeter, 2010;
Modood, 2011; 2013; Race, 2011; Race 2012; Wright et
al, 2012; Cantle, 2012).
Selected Bibliography
• Adonis, A. (2012) Education, Education, Education. Reforming
England’s Schools, Biteback Publishing, London.
• Cantle, T. (2012) Interculturalism, Houndsmills, Palgrave Macmillan.
• May, S., Sleeter, C.E. (Ed.) (2010) Critical Multiculturalism: theory
and praxis, Routledge, New York.
• Modood, T. (2nd Ed.) (2013) Multiculturalism, Polity Press,
Cambridge.
• Race, R. (2011) Multiculturalism and Education, Continuum,
London.
• Race, R., Lander, V. (Eds.) (forthcoming) Advancing Race and
Ethnicity in Education, Houndsmills, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wright, H., Singh, M., Race, R. (Eds.) (2012) Precarious International
Multicultural Education. Hegemony, Dissent and Rising Alternatives,
Sense Publishers, Rotterdam.