Anthropology, sociology and the preparation of teachers for a culturally plural society

Abstract

During 2001 the Teacher Training Agency for England and Wales (TTA) submitted a review of the national curriculum for initial teacher education (TTA, 2001) to public consultation. The review was a response to criticisms that the ‘new standards’ introduced by the TTA (DfEE, 1998) were insufficiently specific with regard to preparing teachers for work with ethnic minority pupils. The consultation, which provided opportunities to consider how trainees should be prepared for work in multiethnic classrooms, took place at a time when theoreticians were deeply involved in debate about the influence of cultural membership on individual development and growth. The purpose of this article is to review research undertaken in North America and England which relates to this consultation, to highlight significant differences and to consider what researchers on both sides of the Atlantic might learn from each other.