ABSTRACT
The Swann Report had emphasised that the most important source of minority ethnic teachers in the future is the minority ethnic pupils currently in schools. However most of the published work in this field has concentrated on 'not the most important source', but on teachers qualified overseas, or adults potentially benefiting from special Access programmes to facilitate entry to higher education. There has also perhaps been an untested assumption that the introduction of 'multicultural education' to established programmes of teacher education might enhance the attraction of the profession for minorities. The focus on an assimilationist approach of the Conservative governments has resulted in equality issues, especially from the point of culture and race, being very much marginalised. Terms such as equal opportunities, education for equality, education for cultural diversity, and education for a culturally plural society are often used as if they were interchangeable.
