Book Description

How successful has Britain been in accommodating racial, religious and cultural diversity in the education system? Have there been contradictory policies that have encouraged migrant labour, while urging immigration control? Has the introduction of market principles to education created further problems for ethnic minorities? This book provides crucial information on key educational issues, events and conflicts in Britain from the 1960s to the present day, as the education system has attempted to incorporate racial and ethnic minorities and educate young people to live in an ethnically diverse society. It uses examples such as political and media reactions to Afro hairstyles in the 1970s through to hijabs and niquabs today, to illustrate how misplaced are the simplistic arguments that blame multiculturalism or minorities for segregation or lack of community cohesion. Race and Education: Policy and Politics in Britain describes how over the decades schools, teachers, parents, local communities and local authorities have worked towards the incorporation of minority children into the education system. It asserts that negative and contradictory policies by governments and a continued climate of hostility to those variously labelled as immigrant, ethnic minority, or non-white has made this extremely difficult. The book sets educational issues and events within a wider social and political context, taking account of national and global influences, and changing political beliefs and actions over the years. Sally Tomlinson argues that debates needs to focus less on dress and more on the educational, housing and employment problems, symptomatic of the continued poverty in many minority areas that works against social cohesion. Race and Education: Policy and Politics in Britain is an invaluable resource for all those concerned with education and social policy, especially students and professionals working in education, sociology and social policy.