Critical Multiculturalism: Rethinking Multicultural and Antiracist Education (Social Research & Educational Studies)

332 Pages·1998·1.76 MB·English

by  Stephen May

Critical Multiculturalism:
Rethinking Multicultural and
Antiracist Education
Edited by
Stephen May
UK Falmer Press, 1 Gunpowder Square, London, EC4A 3DE
USA Falmer Press, 325 Chestnut Street, 8th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106
© S May, 1999
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First published in 1999
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Jacket design by Caroline Archer
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Contents
Dedication v
List of Tables and Figures vi
Preface vii
Introduction: Towards Critical Multiculturalism 1
Stephen May
1 Critical Multiculturalism and Cultural Difference: Avoiding 12
Essentialism
Stephen May
2 Racism and Multicultural Education: Rethinking ‘Race’ and 46
‘Whiteness’ in Late Capitalism
Peter McLaren and Rodolfo Torres
3 Racism, ‘Postmodernism’ and Reflexive Multiculturalism 84
Ali Rattansi
4 Forging Partnerships for Multicultural Teacher Education 124
Christine Sleeter and Carmen Montecinos
5 Antiracist Education through Political Literacy: The Case of Canada 151
Kogila Moodley
6 Critical Antiracism in South Africa 168
Nazir Carrim and Crain Soudien
7 Children’s Constructions of Their National Identity: Implications 189
for Critical Multiculturalism
Geoffrey Short and Bruce Carrington
8 Critical Multicultural Education and Students’ Perspectives 209
Sonia Nieto
9 Critical Multiculturalism in Science and Technology Education 236
Derek Hodson
10 Multicultural Education: Transforming the Mainstream 267
Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope
iv
Notes on Contributors 301
Index 305
FOR PROFESSOR BARRY TROYNA 1951–1996
List of Tables and Figures
Table 4.1 Dominator and partnership beliefs 1 34
Figure 9.1 Some guidelines for the development of multicultural science 2 37
education
Figure 9.2 Levels of sophistication for an issues-based curriculum 2 56
Table 10.1 General principles of approaches to education 2 97
Table 10.2 Pedagogical strategies 2 98
Preface
The catalyst for this volume was a 1993 book review in New Community by
Barry Troyna. In that review, he compared two recent edited collections on
multicultural education—one from Britain and one from the US—and made the
comment that, given their differing national concerns and trajectories, each
would have benefited considerably from knowledge of the other. As he
concluded, ‘the need for dialogue between the two is plain for all to see’ (1993, p.
372).
As it happened, this was something which I had actually been thinking about
for some time. I had already attempted to reconcile debates on multiculturalism
on both sides of the Atlantic in my own work on multicultural education in New
Zealand. This view was reinforced on my subsequent arrival in Britain in 1993.
It was clear to me then, as now, that the unhelpful dichotomization of
multicultural and antiracist education throughout the 1980s in Britain still
lingered on. It was equally clear to me that a necessary and long overdue
rapprochement between British multiculturalists and antiracists could be
facilitated by a greater understanding of North American debates around
multiculturalism and critical pedagogy. Barry Troyna’s review prompted me to
action, and this, some five years later, is the result.
Fittingly then, this collection is dedicated to Barry. I am only sorry that he is
not here to see it. His untimely death from cancer in February 1996 was a
personal and professional loss to many, myself included. As a committed
antiracist in the British tradition, there is no doubt much in here with which he
would have disagreed. He was sceptical to the end about the value of
multiculturalism and its potential reconcilement with antiracism. However, he
also shared a great deal of common ground with the particular interests and
concerns of this volume. His work (and his life) was characterized by a
passionate and unshakeable commitment to social justice in general and to
antiracism in particular—a commitment that was grounded in the experiences of
his own working-class Jewish childhood in North London. He was especially
concerned that the academic pursuit of antiracism was always linked to, and
outworked in educational policy and practice—that it actually made a difference
for students. And, as his many collaborators over the years will attest, he
demonstrated in his own work the merits of an inclusive and democratic
viii
approach to research practice. The absence of his eloquent, impassioned, and
often good humoured perspective remains a significant and still tangible loss.
In addition, thanks are due to the many who helped me to see this project to its
eventual (and belated) conclusion. To my fellow contributors for agreeing to
participate, for putting up with my harrying, and for getting there in the end. To
first Malcolm Clarkson, and then (upon Malcolm’s retirement) Anna Clarkson at
Falmer Press for their encouragement and, most of all, patience with regard to
the inevitable delays and crises that accompany an edited collection. To my
colleagues in the sociology department at Bristol who provide such an enjoyable
environment in which to work. And finally, to the two real loves of my life —
Janet, my wife, and Ella, our baby daughter—without whom this project, and
many more things besides, would not have been possible.
Reference
TROYNA, B. (1993) Leicester, M. and Taylor, M. (eds) Ethics, Ethnicity and Education
(London: Kogan Page, 1992) and Grant, C. (ed.) Research and Multicultural
Education: From the Margins to the Mainstream (Basingstoke, England; Falmer
Press, 1992), New Community, 19, pp. 372–3.
Stephen May
University of Bristol
August, 1998
Introduction: Towards Critical
Multiculturalism
Stephen May
Over the years, multicultural education has promised much and delivered little.
Since its popularization in the late 1960s and early 1970s, proponents have
argued that multicultural education, and the associated notion of cultural
pluralism, can accomplish all manner of things. A central claim has been that
multicultural education can foster greater cultural interaction, interchange and
harmony, both in schools and beyond. It has also regularly been touted as the best
educational means of addressing and redressing long-standing patterns of
differential achievement for minority students. The result has been a proliferating
academic debate on multiculturalism over the last 30 years and a burgeoning
multicultural education industry in curricular and resource development
(although, as we shall see, the two have seldom actually informed each other).
However, these debates about multicultural education, and the industry it has
spawned, have also been characterized by a depressing disjuncture between their
vaulting, high minded ambitions and the ongoing reality of school life for
minority (and majority) students. In short, multicultural education has had a
largely negligible impact to date on the life chances of minority students, the
racialized attitudes of majority students, the inherent monoculturalism of school
practice, and the wider processes of power relations and inequality which
underpin all these. So much for that then—or, at least, so it would seem.
But recent trends suggest that we may be turning a corner. Multicultural
education may finally be about to realize its potential and, along with it, fulfil the
hopes and expectations of its many proponents. And not before time. Necessarily,
much has changed—and has had to change—for this long-held possibility to
regain any credibility after so many decades of disappointment. In the process,
the very focus and parameters of the debate have been recast, and many of the
perceived weaknesses of past approaches to multicultural education have been,
or are now being addressed.
I do not want to rehearse at length here an already voluminous literature on the
merits and demerits of past multicultural education theory and practice (see May,
1994a). Nonetheless, it is important to point out, however briefly, the key issues
which the theory and practice of multicultural education are currently facing.
This is necessary not only because these issues feature so prominently in what
follows but also, and perhaps more importantly, because in the light of them we