’Swann's song’: the origins, ideology and implications of Education for All

In 1978 the then Labour Government agreed to establish a Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Groups. Finally in 1985 after numerous changes in personnel (including the ‘resignation’ of the original chairperson) the committee produced its final report. Called Education for All it extended to 807 pages, had cost £692,618 to produce and was on sale at £24. Its role was to stimulate changes along multicultural lines throughout the various strata of the English education system. In short, it was intended to legitimate the educational orthodoxy of multicultural education.

In this article I argue that this goal could never be achieved. To sustain this argument I look at the political origins of the committee, its original and then formal terms of reference, the ideological straitjacket within which it functioned and its tenuous relationship with the core of educational decision‐making in the UK. I conclude that the committee's impact on the mitigation of racial inequalities in the education system will be minimal. Indeed, it is an issue which the committee failed to engage with throughout its long history.