English society and its education system have been through several phases of multicultural education – beginning with the colourblind, then through multicultural and antiracist phases, and then back to the colourblind (Gillborn, 2008; Hoque, 2018; Race, 2023). The current context for race, racism and hope education was discussed by Lander in her BERA Blog. Since when we have had the racist riots of summer 2024 in England, which were ignited following the killings of three young White girls in Southport by a Black young man, Axel Rudakubana, who was wrongly identified as a Muslim asylum seeker. Among White rioters, Muslims and other immigrants became the focus of blame for the deaths.

The riots have raised a particular concern about White children and their community contexts. Meanwhile, some ethnic minority children and their families have had to take strong measures to protect themselves. The education system must recognise the current context in the light of the racist riots, , which were described as ‘nativist’ and ‘acts of ugly violence’ in a blog post by BERA President Marlon Lee Moncrieffe. So how are schools to respond to these new challenges? This BERA Blog special issue, published one year on from the riots, addresses these complex issues and presents some solutions.

Four decades ago, the Swann Report (1985) declared that antiracist education is synonymous with good education. The authors saw the purpose of such education ‘to help pupils understand the world in which they live, and the interdependence of individuals, groups and nations’ (p. 318). In their view, the failure to broaden the perspectives – especially of the ethnic majority community – constitutes a fundamental mis-education. They saw ‘education as having a major role to play in countering the racism’ (p. 319). Parekh (2000) reminded us that it was wrong to equate antiracist multicultural education with non-Whiteness; he saw such education being for all pupils, whatever their ethnicity. While others – such as Advance HE’s Anti-Racist Curriculum Project – have since drawn our attention to the importance of acknowledging (and countering) the White Eurocentric/Western power, privilege and elitism that permeates the curriculum in our institutions and which predicates and reinforces racism in the education structures.

‘This BERA Blog special issue provides a diverse range of perspectives on the current challenges facing education in the UK.’

This special issue provides a diverse range of perspectives on the current challenges facing education in the UK. It opens with a blog post from Penny Rabiger who argues that teachers must surpass superficial understanding of racism; such racial literacy being especially necessary for those who have not personally experienced racism. Penny also argues for the importance of teachers to understand how racism functions structurally and systemically, and to have the competence to apply this knowledge in their teaching practice.

This requires a deracialised teacher education where racial literacy is a mandatory component (see Smith & Lander, 2022), which is the subject of Diane Warner and Mamta Naik’s blog post. They present initial teacher education as the hope in times of discord and uncertainty and a bridge to enable children and young people to critically and compassionately engage in the world.

Nadia Talukder reinforces this message by reminding us that a teacher’s role should not be confined to teaching only subject knowledge serving a neoliberal system of education, but one that develops, in the learners, critical thinking about the world we live in. The task of addressing race is for all schools, especially those in White areas where race is generally absent, as it is assumed (wrongly) to be irrelevant (Bennett & Treweek, 2014).

Sanum Khan then draws attention to the situation of minoritised teachers in our schools, their added burden of racism, and the emotional weight which often leads them to leave the profession. She points out that it is essential to provide for the wellbeing of the people affected in this way. Here, it is necessary to point out that many UK schools have Muslim students whose needs (prayer, ablution, fasting) require accommodation in a spirit of positive inclusion (Iqbal et al., 2024).

Francis Farrell reflects on an educational approach based on the philosophy of the 17th-century rationalist philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) to counter the emotionally charged racialised narratives that schools today are having to respond to. His research findings revealed mixed experiences: on the one hand, young people, minoritised by race and religion, who were experiencing an emboldened racism; and on the other hand, young people expressing a desire for intercultural mixing and knowledge of each other’s cultures, and an understanding of the racial dynamics at work in post-Brexit Britain.

This concept of intercultural mixing provides the focus for the next blog post in this special issue, as Ruth Sinhal demonstrates how schools can help to build more cohesive communities. Through the Schools Linking project, she illustrates how schools can facilitate meaningful positive social contact between students from diverse backgrounds.

This special issue concludes with a blog post from Sean Hayes and Feyisa Demie who argue that educational underachievement of poor White boys continues to be a problem, though not without contention. They argue that addressing this underachievement gap is an important element in tackling issues of racism which may be fuelled by a lack of belonging and a sense of being left behind.

Our diverse society and its education system is in a new phase which requires a fresh response and some new thinking. A renewed effort is necessary to enable all our pupils to have better understanding of difference, overcoming assumptions about the superiority of modern, western society. In the age of fake news, our pupils need even more critical skills – harnessing the ability to explore ideas and to challenge information; to acquire the confidence to question established authorities; and to think and act independently.

References

Bennett, J., & Lee-Treweek, G. (2014). Doing race: How secondary school pupils in mainly white schools construct ‘race’. Power and Education, 6(1), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.2304/power.2014.6.1.32

Gillborn, D. (2008). Racism and education: Coincidence or conspiracy? Routledge.

Hoque, A. (2017). Third-generation British-Bangladeshis from east London: Complex identities and a culturally responsive pedagogy. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(2), 182–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2017.1406335

Iqbal, K., Khan, S., & Skelton, R. (2024). Addressing Muslim needs. In Iqbal & Abbas (Eds.). Ethnicity, religion, and Muslim education in a changing world: Navigating contemporary perspectives on multicultural schooling in the UK. Routledge.

Parekh, B. (2000). Rethinking multiculturalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Race, R. (2023). Multiculturalism and education. Open University Press.

Smith, H., & Lander, V. (2022). Finding ‘pockets of possibility’ for anti-racism in a curriculum for student teachers: From absence to action. Curriculum Journal, 34(1), 22–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.177

Swann Report. (1985). Education for all. HMSO. https://education-uk.org/documents/swann/swann1985.html