ABSTRACT

Critical multiculturalism has been challenged on a number of fronts in recent years. Both proponents and detractors have focused on its apparent inability to transform itself into something useful to classroom teachers, that is, to articulate a range of practices consistent with its ideals. The second challenge comes from the widespread uptake at policy level of outcomes-or standards-based testing and qualifications regimes, which have narrowed the multicultural debate to a concern with achievement gaps and ways of closing them.