Abstract
This collection of edited and specially commissioned papers has been assembled as a core reader for the Open University Master's module that shares its subtitle: ‘Critical issues in equity, diversity and education’, and this is both its strength and weakness. All the editors are Open University tutors and renowned researchers in their fields. They are also astute and skilful at editing longer papers and book chapters so that few chapters in this edition are longer than 10 pages. This makes it an excellent introduction to a wide range of critical theories. The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 aims to unpick key concepts and research methods that underpin critical theory. It is an unashamedly political project that the editors set out: ‘(to) challenge us as educators and practitioners to reflect critically on, question and research our own positions, discourses and practices’.
To this end, the Part 2 offers a range of case studies of ‘innovative, transformative practice’ that cut across issues such as Islamophobia; ‘naturally queer teaching moments’; counter-narratives to engage young people and resist dominant discourse; and arts-based practice. These are some of the most obviously useful chapters for the leader or administrator as there are pedagogic models offered, as well as several links to ongoing projects or external support organizations within these ‘case study’ style articles. At times within the book as a whole the American authors can seem to be generalizing the American experience of race as a universal one; regrettably I felt this was the case with bell hooks’ chapter, despite it being specially commissioned for this UK text. Happily, Kincheloe and Steinberg’s Part 2 chapter ‘Why teach against Islamophobia? Striking the empire back’ does not fall into this category: their arguments are equally pertinent to the UK, and their strategy of naming and situating Islamophobia in a long historical context might be a model for how to use the new UK history curriculum. By tracing prejudice and cultural ‘folk devils’ through time, perhaps we can debunk these views as well as promote unheard voices and enhance (rather than squash) diversity. The learning offered in Chapter 6 ‘The elementary bubble project’ is also readily applicable to a UK setting and offers a well-argued rationale for critical media literacy as a school learning priority.
Part 3, ‘Taking a stance on issues and practice to transform learning’ is more mixed in its utility and in how well the editing serves the reader. In general the longer source papers are well edited; rarely did I find myself nonplussed by a clearly marked omission, except in the case of Jenny Ozga’s chapter ‘Theory, values and policy research in education’. In a dense section, ‘The principle of choice’, she outlines why she think researchers should be explicit about the choices that they make in selecting research topics. However the final paragraph in this part makes great assumptions about the reader’s familiarity with changes in critical theory generalized as ‘a simple polarity of pluralism and Marxism …’ (p. 179). Much more ‘unpacking’ will be needed for readers new to critical theory. I was also frustrated by the specially commissioned Anna Craft chapter, ‘Co-participative transformation: creative learning conversations’; however in this case, it was due to the potential I could see in this way of working with adult learners. There are web and video links to three projects where Craft and colleagues used this method which offer tantalizing glimpses of what might be possible. I feel that this way of ‘storying and gaming’ reflective practice could be a very useful tool in senior leadership teams, but further reading and research would be needed prompted by this taster.
The introduction promises that the editors’ view of critical theory-informed practice is to transform, even liberate pedagogy and so promote true equity and diversity. Chapter 1 seems to suggest that the chapters in the book will offer ‘roadmaps’ for ways to enact this liberation; however the final section, ‘Issues for C21st practice’, sets out a range of conflicts and contested interests with no suggestion of solutions. Each chapter in this part (and whole book) is well written, expertly argued and compelling, but ultimately the final section left this reader feeling desolate about the possibility of change. While understanding that this is a reader for a Master's level module and therefore critical analysis and evaluation skills should be honed by its reading, the book has a wider social life also. At the risk of sounding Pollyanna-ish, I would hope that a reader designed to educate critically reflective school leaders and teachers might end on a rallying call to arms rather than Rix’s deeply pessimistic ‘From equality to diversity? Ideas that keep us quiet’. I can accept his thesis that neo-liberalism has hijacked the discourse of equality with regard to education as a way to diminish counter arguments about who is favoured under managerialist high stakes testing and league tables marketization. Both current and previous ministers of education have claimed that their national curriculum will raise standards for all and increase social mobility, while introducing academies as free market agents who can discard that curriculum and select their own pupils by stealth. Reading this chapter in isolation I would have found it useful as a discussion/deconstruction of the key concepts within the book’s title. However, having been highly engaged by the titular promise of a text that will enable the reader to transform practice, it was disappointing for it to conclude with Rix’s ‘The final result’: ‘… neo-liberal policies – including those around Education – have further entrenched the disenfranchisement of the majority of the world’ (p. 253).
As an academic reader, the quality of the chapters within this volume is exemplary, drawn from across America and Europe by experts in their fields. Indeed several have immediately been added to my PGCE and Master's course reading lists. It has less immediate utility for school managers, leaders and administrators who are not engaged in postgraduate work however, and indeed chapters such as Bronwyn Davies’ ‘Death to critique and dissent’ could be seen as patronizing when she suggests ‘that it takes years of concerted effort for teachers to learn to read research and to generate new teaching practices based on the research’ (p. 201). However, her critique of the supposed rigour of ‘evidence-based research’ so favoured by Gove will be less controversial and is a useful analysis. Taken as a piece, the most useful chapters for EMAL readers are likely to be those in Part 2, which offer some innovative and timely arguments and case studies. This is a valuable reader for a student of education and equity, but must be mined closely for strategies to transform practice in action.