ABSTRACT
There is no question about the legitimacy of multicultural education in the National Curriculum. ‘Education for life in a multicultural society’ is a key element in the dimensions that ‘cover all aspects of equal opportunities… permeate the school curriculum and are the responsibility of all teachers’. This statement is taken from the National Curriculum Council (NCC) publication Starting Out in the National Curriculum (1992), which summarizes and adds to principles already set out in the Education Reform Act (1988), From Policy to Practice (NCC, 1989), the guidance documents Curriculum Guidance No. 3: The Whole Curriculum (NCC, 1990) and Curriculum Guidance No. 8: Education for Citizenship (NCC, 1990), and an article on ‘A Pluralist Society in the classroom and beyond’ in the NCC newsletter of February 1991. It makes clear that multicultural education should be ‘an explicit part of the curriculum policy in every school and integral to (its) planning, develop-ment and evaluation’, thus creating a curriculum which should, in the words of the Education Reform Act, be ‘broad and balanced’ and ‘ensure…cultural development’ as an entitlement for all.
