ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews the development of educational policy, the school curriculum, language issues, intercultural relations in the classroom, the educational performance of West Indian and other ethnic minority children, and the relationships of home, school and community in a diverse society. Hopefully, the symposium will be helpful to teachers, teacher educators and their students in contributing to the open, systematic and rigorous analysis of a particularly complex and challenging area of educational practice and social policy. In multicultural education, an aspect of educability which considers avenues of opportunity and equality of access in the same way, the same approaches apply. Undoubtedly, a social class analysis throws much light upon many aspects of education in any complex society, including ethnically plural societies. Equally, ethnicity may help explain numerous aspects of pupil performance or teacher expertise.
