ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a particular part of its genealogy: how, during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, educational approaches drawn from the black education movements combined with the agendas of local and national government in developing multicultural education as a central feature of what is sometimes termed state or municipal multiculturalism. It examines black educators' contributions to multicultural education as an aspect of the wider struggle for social justice, their critiques of multiculturalism and the impact that the politics of diversity and difference had upon the black movements that had, indirectly at least, spawned them. The work of black British political theorist Bhikhu Parekh, which draws upon both western liberal traditions and 'non-western' philosophies, has proven influential both on policy-makers and on scholars. Its black and anti-racist proponents understood multiculturalism and anti-racism in terms of institutional design, governance and management, and curriculum change.
