Diversity as problem, diversity as solution
A critical exploration of diversity discourses and their workings in school lives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11166240 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eleni Stamou (0000-0001-8089-5411, University of Birmingham, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-16 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Sociology of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0142-5692 • E-ISSN: 1465-3346 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01425692.2026.2627308 |
| OpenAlex | W7128727745 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
The paper provides a critical exploration of discourses of diversity and manifestations in school lives in England. Set against the rollback of equality and inclusion frameworks, it aims to offer insights to rethink, recalibrate and defend diversity. I begin by unpacking competing discursive configurations of diversity in the literature. I then explore manifestations in school lives drawing on teachers’ accounts in two secondary schools with different demographics. Despite celebratory rhetorics, diversity emerged as a problem in the urban school and involved racialised perceptions of certain ethnic-religious backgrounds as barriers to modern liberal values. In the rural school diversity emerged as a solution, as a lack of multicultural experiences and attachment to locality was seen as limiting students’ horizons. In both schools, diversity worked towards demarcating the limits of desirable and valued conduct, producing and normalising the forms of difference that count as diversity, thus reflecting rather than interrupting power/knowledge hierarchies
Cultural diversity · Diversity (politics · Immigration · Inclusion (mineral · Inequality · Limiting · Multiculturalism · Set (abstract data type · Education Discipline and Inequality · Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies · Feminist Theory and Gender Studies
Within and Beyond Citizenship
The Crises of Multiculturalism
Inventing our Selves
Contemporary, racialised conflicts over LGBT-inclusive education
Doing Interviews
Powers of Freedom
Embodying diversity
The Psy-Security-Curriculum ensemble
Countering terrorism and radicalisation
Educating for living diversity
To promote, or not to promote fundamental British values? Teachers’ standards, diversity and teacher education
Re‐scripting Place
Hidden contexts and invisible power relations
Failed Citizenship and Transformative Civic Education
The White Working Class, Racism and Respectability
Diversity as Immigration Governmentality
White Diversity
Diversity in Everyday Discourse
From Scarman to Stephen Lawrence
"Diversity" and the Social Imaginary
Territorial Stigmatization in Action
State containment and closure of gendered possibilities among a millennial generation
The Riots of the Underclass
From Affirmative Action to Diversity
The language of diversity
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |