Multicultural Education In British Schools

Multicultural education was introduced from the civil rights movements in western countries. It requires schools to face and respect the cultural diversity and reflect equality and justice so as to give equal opportunities to students from different ethnic, racial and social groups. In 1970s the British Government started to give attention to the education of immigrants and formulate the multicultural education policies. Entering the 1980s, the British Government acknowleged that Britain is a multicultural society and encouraged the schools to practice multicultural education and make the students appreciate different cultures in order to achieve the equal right and opportunity to education.To promote multicultural education in schools, Government has passed legislation for education and secured the right to education for different ethnic groups by laws. The Race Relations Act 1976 makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person, directly or indirectly in the field of education, on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 places a general duty on public bodies including local government and schools to promote racial equality and harmony. The two Acts are the legal enforcement of multicultural education and the legal basis for practicing it.The Multicultural Education proposes every pupil should have an equal opportunity to education, regardless of gender, social class, race and cultural features. The equality does not only mean an equal access to school and it also emphasizes achieving academic success equally. Qualified Teachers Status (QTS) sets the specific requirements for teachers, who should set high expectations of students and respect their social, cultural, linguistic, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including a commitment to ensuring that pupils can achieve their full educational potential; who should respond to pupils' diverse learning needs and secure their better development.With advance of education democratization, the British schools, responding to pupils from multiethnic and multicultural backgrounds, are committed to securing pupils' rights and promoting their awareness to human rights through the formal curriculum and extracurricular activities. The over-arching concepts of multicultural education are reflected in the subjects of national curriculum, especially in citizenship education, religious education and modern foreign languages. At present, more and more schools and classrooms in Britain have pupils from the diverse national, regional, ethnic and religious cultures. The British government emphases the importance of celebrating diversity in order to set up the more democratic and inclusive society and make people keep their cultures and identities. The schools are practicing the education for diversity. Equality and diversity are a key theme of multicultural education in British schools.The paper aims to show the historical development of multicultural education in British schools, its policies and strategies to practice it so that it provides a guideline for Chinese schools. The structure of the paper is as follows:Chapter One "Introduction" displays the origins of this research, the significance of research on multicultural education, the literature on multicultural education in British schools, and objectives, contents and methodology of this research work.Chapter Two "Overarching Concepts of Multicutural Education" examines the definitions of culture, multiculturalism, multicultural education, and some other concepts concerned. It defines the theme of multicultural education in this writing and displays the basic theories of multicultural education.Chapter Three "Historical Development of Multicultural Education in British Schools" examines the origins and development of multicultural education in Britain. It shows how educational policies developed for assimilation and integration to multiculturalism.Chapter Four "Analysis of Policies on Multicultural Education in British Schools" introduces the British education system and examines the legislation and policies of multicultural education in Britain.Chapter Five "Teacher Education for Multicultural Education" examines the teacher qualities for multicultural education and the main contents of Qualified Teachers Status (QTS). It analyses the QTS standards for teachers in the discourse of multicultural education and policies of teacher education. And it explores the current problems as to prepare teachers for multicultural education.Chapter Six "Curriculum Development of Multicultural Education in British Schools" makes analysis of the multicultural curriculum and reviews the curriculum development in secondary schools. It examines the aims of National Curriculum and its connection to multicultural education, explores the elements of multicultural education in every curriculum subjects and the pedagogy of multicultural curriculum.Chapter Seven "Main Strategies to Multicultural Education in British Schools" examines the citizenship education, religious education and modern foreign languages. It explores how schools make pupils value different ethnic and cultural identities, and promote their multicultural awareness.Chapter Eight "School Cases" examines the good practice of multicultural education in Northumberland Park Community School, Plumstead Manor School and Warwick School for Boys.Chapter Nine "Features and Implications of Multicultural Education in British Schools" summarizes the features of multicultural education practices in British schools and points out the implications for Chinese schools.