Within this essay we will explore the relationship between understandings of race imbedded in the learning context and the lived experience of learners and practitioners. It emphasizes the need for collective commitment to engage with the dynamics of difference by taking into account the rapidly changing nature of the primary school workforce, the increasing diverse ethnic profile of our primary children and the reality of underachievement.
Framework of equality:
We begin by looking at five arguable musts for teaching under this subject, these include;
The potential for the future;
Him/herself …show more content…
It started from the very start that white people in Britain enjoy a position of power and privilege, based on their imperialist colonial heritage. That being the exploration of Europe in the 16th century, European industrial and military supremacy in the 18th and 19th century and the domination of the world by the British Empire in the 19th century (still the biggest empire of all time). Teachers were encouraged to confront their own prejudices and effect a shift in their own mindsets before attempting to challenge inequality in a learning context, for example, Gaine …show more content…
As Rattansi (1993) has argued it is often asserted that the 1980s in the UK saw a polarization of two fundamentally opposed educational movements - multiculturalism and antiracism. However, it is not clear to what extent and in what ways this broad division has actually been reflected in the daily experience of educational practice. To discuss this I want to rehearse the arguments put forward by Ali Rattansi.
Multiculturalism as expressed in the Swann Report (1985) is based on the premise that the key issue facing schools (and indeed lifelong learning) is how to create tolerance for black minorities and their cultures in a white nature now characterized by cultural diversity or cultural pluralism. Intolerance is conceptualized basically as a matter of attitudes, and is said to be constituted by prejudice. The basic educational prescription is the sympathetic teaching of 'other cultures ' in order to dispel ignorance. The overall social project is the creation of a harmonious, democratic cultural pluralism, a healthy cultural