Race and Education: racism, diversity and inequality, implications for multicultural education

Abstract

The paper will contain a brief and general analysis of how racism, diversity and inequality have been conceptualised, what assumptions have underpinned education policy in Britain and what have been its consequences for research in the field of race and education. My view is that multicultural education is based upon an inadequate theoretical foundation in its attempted analysis of the relationship between race, education and society. In the paper analysis will also focus upon schools and the methods adopted by teachers in an attempt to overcome the ambiguities and contradictions associated with the race and education debate. The objective will be to clarify some of the issues besetting the education of ethnic minority children and to indicate areas for further systematic research. The various strategies adopted in relation to ethnic minority children (this paper will refer to children of Asian, Afro-Asian and West Indian origin) will have fundamental implications for general education policy and strategies for all children. I shall refer to what Halsey (1975) describes as the three main areas of controversy in the issue concerning sociology and the equality debate. First, there is a clash of priorities between different values presumed to be realisable in society. Secondly, we face the philosophically and logically difficult intellectual task of clarifying the language of debate. Thirdly, there remains the tedious labour of relating theoretical constructions to the changing empirical reali