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Multicultural education has been the subject of intense criticism since the early 1970s. Most criticism has come from the advocates of anti - racist education. At the same time, anti - racist education has been subjected to very little scrutiny. This paper examines some conceptual, empirical, and political limitations of anti - racist education.
Most educators consider the current curriculum to be apolitical. Although it is the case that all education is political education, anti - racist education is viewed as being too political. Anti - racist education tends to be reductive -- victims of discrimination are usually referred to as "black," whereas perpetrators are "white" -- and narrowly conceived to refer only to institutional racism. Finally, many of the anti - racist interventions reported show negligible and even negative results.
Almost from its inception as an official Canadian government policy in 1971, multiculturalism has received intense criticism. Perhaps the most serious criticisms have come in the area of multicultural education. Anti - racist theorists have maintained that multicultural education does not address visible minorities' real concerns. Critics contend that under the guise of such explicit purposes as cultural enrichment, equality of access, and reducing personal prejudice, multicultural education has implicitly functioned to reinforce the status quo (Parker, 1992), subvert minority resistance (Troyna & Williams, 1986), and reproduce social and economic inequities (Troyna, 1992). Unfortunately, most of these contentions are speculative and unsubstantiated.
Tator and Henry (1991) suggest that "the most recent trend in education is to move away from a multicultural approach and to embrace the model of anti - racist education popular in England and the United States" (p. 144). The two approaches differ substantially in their emphases. Multicultural education has traditionally emphasized intergroup harmony (Lynch, 1992), educational under - achievement (Banks & McGee - Banks, 1989), individual prejudice (Lynch, 1992), equality of opportunity (Banks & McGee - Banks, 1989), enrichment through celebration of diversity, and improving self - image through pride in cultural heritage (Fleras & Elliott, 1992). The more recent anti - racist perspective emphasizes intergroup equity (Parker, 1992), educational disadvantage (Wright, 1987), institutional racism (Stanley, 1992), equality of outcome (Massey, 1991), unequal power relationships (Donald & Rattansi, 1992), and cultivating political agency through critical analysis (Massey, 1991). There are, as...