Retain, relinquish or revise: The future for multicultural education

Abstract

The recently revived debate between proponents of multicultural and antiracist education provides the starting point for this paper. Whilst not advocating an exclusively multicultural focus, the paper nonetheless seeks to defend multiculturalism against its antiracist critics. It does so in two ways. The first is by showing that the criticisms of its central tenets are either trivial, misguided or equally applicable to antiracist education. The second is by offering a previously unarticulated justification in terms of confronting the ‘new racism’ and removing the psychological barriers to an effective antiracist education. It is urged that multiculturalism be retained but in a revised form. In particular, stress is placed on the importance of teachers identifying and challenging their pupils’ misconceptions of other cultures.