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ERIC Number: EJ1270372
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Sep
Pages: 31
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1740-2743
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A Curriculum to Think With: British Colonialism, Corporate Kleptocracy, Enduring White Privilege and Locating Mechanisms for Change
Parsons, Carl
Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v18 n2 p196-226 Sep 2020
Each country should look beyond the nationalistic stories and the everyday self-images popularly disseminated. UK students deserve an environment where school curricula, public debate, politics, media and memorials give balanced, factual and ethically informed narratives about Britain's past and current dealings with other races and nations. A mythical 'great' Britain underpins a 'racialized consciousness' shaping attitudes to race equality issues at home today and how of contemporary commercial colonialism is evaluated. 'White' is a socially constructed composite ethnicity with exclusionary and subjugating characteristics. With different national roots, and played out differently in different countries, the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests point to common, enduring global inequalities and injustices with 'white priority' at their root. This paper focuses principally on the school curriculum, its content and, how it is experienced and assessed. It examines understanding of, and attitudes towards, five interlocking themes: slavery; colonialism; 'righteous' wars; contemporary exploitative engagement with lesser developed nations; and racial and class inequalities in today's Britain. The limited current state of understanding of these issues poses challenges to the extension of multicultural education into meaningful antiracism and action for social justice. The school curriculum is only one part of wider action required to address (mis)understandings of Britain's past and present colonialism, to recognise current race related injustices at home and abroad and to resituate notions of 'belonging', ethnicity and equal worth. Even 'correcting' these perceptions, bolstered by the widespread 'Black Lives Matter' protests in many countries, will not lead to sustained improvements in racial justice without significant adjustments to legal, social and especially economic infrastructures.
Institute for Education Policy Studies. University of Northampton, School of Education, Boughton Green Road, Northampton, NN2 7AL, UK. Tel: +44-1273-270943; e-mail: ieps@ieps.org.uk; Web site: http://www.jceps.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A