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International anti-racism approaches

Linkages to other concepts/paradigms

• Multicultural education
• Values education
• Citizenship education
• Anti-bias education

Anti-racism education is not a subject or a field of study. It is variously described as a philosophy, a movement, an approach, a theoretical framework, or a package of strategies that implement racial discrimination laws in schools and educational systems. Its history is linked to the development of multicultural education but it has clear parallels with other fields of knowledge, research and educational practice.

Multicultural education

From the early 1980s there has been ongoing debate in the international literature about the nexus between multicultural education and anti-racist education. This has been particularly so in Britain. Multicultural education is concerned with developing programs and practices that equip all students with the knowledge, skills and values needed to participate successfully in a culturally diverse society. Today's anti-racist thinking views an ethnic or cultural approach to the educational needs of racial minorities as evading the fundamental reasons for failure or poor performance at school - racist attitudes and practices in the education system as a whole and in society at large. The anti-racist education perspective sees multicultural education as emphasising the celebration of cultural diversity and the administration of specific programs to address the language needs and academic performance of students from ethnic minorities. The dichotomy is characterised as an emphasis on diversity and pluralism (multicultural education) versus equality and justice and combating racism (anti-racism education).

British academics^[2], writing in the 1980s, characterised multicultural and anti-racist education as oppositional and antagonistic forms. Multicultural education was depicted as assimilationist, where various cultures are woven into a social consensus with shared values. Multicultural education, in these terms, views racism as misunderstanding and ignorance, it overemphasises the personal aspects and neglects the political dimensions and the power structures. Anti-racist education, in contrast, sees conflict as central with dominant values being imposed on disempowered unvalued groups.

By the 1990s, this debate was seen as too simply dichotomised^[3]. The social reality was of communities that were both multicultural and racist. Attempts to synthesise multicultural and anti-racist education^[4] argued for an anti-racist multicultural education, maintaining that both multicultural and anti-racist education aimed to promote a more just society. Multicultural education was seen as the umbrella term promoting justice and equality for all with a clear embracing of anti-racism thinking informing and underpinning action within education systems and schools.

Anti-racism education takes as its starting point an examination of the ways in which cultural differences are used to entrench inequality. The prime concern of anti-racism initiatives is with systemic discrimination in all its forms.

The distinctions in the literature with multicultural education are subtle and often the interventions at local level may be the same, but anti-racism education represents a strengthening and deepening of concern with the influence of the inequality in power between different cultures on education outcomes. It is, in some ways, a reaction to the integrationist view that focuses attention on remediation of psychological and academic variables affecting indigenous and ethnic minority groups rather than the living and working conditions that underlie poor education outcomes. The notion of anti-racism education gives prominence to examining social inequities, which contribute to differences in educational outcomes of populations and sub-populations, such as indigenous people and minority ethnic groups.

Values education

Values education is a popular term in Canada and Scotland and in parts of Europe, but it would be fair to say that most countries demonstrate support for promoting values in education in their educational policies and curriculum statements. Values education is commonly understood as teaching concerned with ethical issues.

A comparative overview of 26 European countries sponsored by The Consortium of Institutions for Development and Research in Education and Europe (CIDREE)^[5] and UNESCO noted that there are many different types of values, which might be addressed through education: for example personal, social, collective, moral, ethical, spiritual, religious, cultural, political, aesthetic, environmental, intellectual and academic. The study found that the education systems of Europe placed varying degrees of emphasis on values education, what they include in its scope, and even the names they give it.

The main cross-overs with anti-racism education occur when the values being promoted are civic, democratic, cultural, tolerance, and general humanist values. In a case study from Denmark^[6], cultural clashes between the majority and various minority groups are given as one example of where values education might address itself. Other examples include addressing the ecological crisis, generation gap issues and use of new medical technology.

Values education is generally thought of as an underpinning or theme and not an area of study. Like anti-racism education, strategies for 'education for values' can be found within curriculum subjects, as cross-curricular themes, as whole-school approaches where values are implicit in the hidden curriculum of school life, as school ethos, in the practices governing collective worship, community links and extra-curricular activities, in teaching and learning processes, and in pastoral care.

An example of a school-level project on values education is the UNESCO sponsored Associated Schools Project which established a network of schools incorporating the ideals and the ethical messages of UNESCO in the curricula and the everyday functioning of the school with special emphasis on peace, democracy, respect for human rights and intercultural education. At present it includes more than 3200 institutions in 123 countries.^[7]

Citizenship education

The fight against racism goes hand in hand with the promotion of a society that actively encourages integration and full participation for all. Citizenship education goes beyond the concept of civics which places emphasis on students acquiring information and knowledge about democratic institutions and practices within their own national, regional and local contexts. Learning for active citizenship incorporates cultural, economic, political and social dimensions; it stresses innovative and participatory teaching and learning methods and places a commitment to core humanist values, such as democratic culture, humanitarianism, social justice, respect and tolerance for diversity and difference, at the centre. In the European context, it is very much linked to establishment of the European Union as the People's Europe.

Learning for active citizenship includes access to the skills and competencies that young people will need for effective economic participation under conditions of technological modernisation, economic globalisation and very concretely, the transnational European labour markets. At the same time, the social and communicative competencies that are both part of new demands and which flow from changing work and study contexts are themselves of critical importance for living in culturally, ethnically and linguistically plural worlds.^[8]

Education for citizenship exists in most Member States of the European Union. Citizenship education in Europe includes the notions of egalitarian citizenship, that is, the rejection of discrimination and prejudice based on gender and ethnicity, and intercultural citizenship, the valuing of diversity and openness for a pluralist world.^[9]

In Australia, citizenship education has been given increased emphasis from the mid 1990s, following a Prime Minister's initiative to develop curriculum resources for schools in civics and citizenship. This interest can be partly attributed to Australia's responsiveness to globalisation and a recognition of the need to develop informed and responsible global citizens with sound knowledge and understandings of Australian values. The curriculum outcomes generally cover the diversity of Australian identities, individual rights and responsibilities, and democratic processes.

Anti-bias education

In the early childhood education literature, anti-racism education comes under the rubric of anti-bias education. This approach recognises the early interest by young children in differences among people (all differences), and their early absorption of socially prevailing stereotypes and prejudice. It has its origins in American research, which generally defines diversity as embracing race, culture, sex, sexual orientation and lifestyles.

^[2] See for example, the arguments of Mullard (1984) and Brandt (1986) in Banks, J.A. & McGee Banks, C.A. (eds.) 1995 Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education.

^[3] Figuera, P (1995) Multicultural Education in the United Kingdom: Historical Development and Current Status in Banks J.A. & McGee Banks, C.A. (eds.) 1995 Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education.

^[4] Grinter (1985) Multicultural or anti-racist education: The need to choose. Falmer., London.

^[5] Taylor, M. National Foundation for Educational Research (1994) Values Education in Europe: a comparative overview of a survey of 26 countries. Consortium of Institutions for Development and Research in Education and Europe, Berkshire, England.

^[6] See note 5, the contribution from Denmark by Professor Dr. K.E. Bugge of the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies

^[7] Meyer-Bisch (Ed.) (1995) Culture of Democracy: a challenge for schools UNESCO Publishing, Paris.

^[8] The European Commission Directorate General XXII Learning for Active Citizenship at http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/education/citizen/citiz-en.html , p8

^[9] European Commission (1997) Accomplishing Europe through Education and Training Study Group on Education and Training