Re(dis)covering Multicultural Capital in Leicester’s Schools and Colleges

Historical Legacies and Possibilities for Change

Bibliographic Data

ID8407566
AuthorsMathew Barnard (0000-0003-0596-5605, University of Birmingham, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume69
Issue3
Pages347-364
Publication date2021-05-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Educational Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1005 • E-ISSN: 1467-8527
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00071005.2020.1813874
OpenAlexW3083222528
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited40

This paper empirically re(dis)covers a moment of conjuncture within Leicester when an opportunity opened up through multicultural/anti-racist education for schools and colleges to develop their ‘multicultural capital’. It does this through the thematic analysis of the key proximate document Report of the Working Party on Multicultural Education as well as drawing on interview data provided by two important agents who helped to implement Leicester’s/Leicestershire’s moment of multicultural education. This moment generated a symbolic, ideational, and conceptual shift within Leicester’s education provision toward a more culturally inclusive position that began to recognise the cultural capital of non-white students. However, this moment was to be lost in the ‘neoliberal epoch’. It is argued in this paper that neoliberal education policy/practice has become an enabling mechanism for renascent colonial ideology. By re(dis)covering this vision for the official recognition of non-white cultural capital, this paper demonstrates the possibilities for alternative directions within Leicester’s schools and colleges that can challenge neoliberal and colonial conceptions of education. It suggests that there are still spaces and structures that can be re(dis)covered in order for this vision to be enabled

Archaeology · Capital (architecture) · Cultural capital · Geography · Multiculturalism · Pedagogy · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Global Educational Policies and Reforms

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