Multiracial education 2. Teacher opinion on aspects of school life. Part One: changes in curriculum and school organization

Abstract

Summary Many aspects of multiracial education were investigated in a national survey of teachers’ opinions. This first part of a two‐part article reports on those items which covered necessary or desirable changes in the curriculum and other aspects of school life. These include topics such as religious education and assemblies, dress and diet, mother‐tongue teaching, English as a foreign language, racial bias in books, cultural adaptation and adjustment, special language needs of West Indian pupils, and deployment of immigrant teachers and non‐teaching staff. A total of 510 teachers (171 primary and 339 secondary) from 25 schools responded to the questionnaire. In these schools the overall proportions of pupils of minority ethnic groups ranged from 18 to 84 per cent. Pupils of Asian, Cypriot, Italian and Afro‐Caribbean origin were represented in varying proportions.