ABSTRACT
Contests over race and racism have become key sites in the so-called culture war that dominates political debate in Australia. There have been particularly intense conflicts over racial discrimination laws and the limits of free speech, enabled by a politicization of race and identity. This chapter examines how this politicization has shaped debates about education and race. We consider the critical attention paid to the influence – real and imagined – of critical race theory and decolonization in the curriculum and classroom. We also examine the social anxiety from some quarters about race and selective schooling. The heightened scrutiny of race, to some extent, reflects the normalization of race politics that has characterized Australian debates in recent times. Equally, it reflects the lingering social discomfort that sections of Australian society have about shifting social power generated by multicultural diversity and demands for Indigenous recognition. Both present challenges to an idealized white, Anglo-Celtic image of Australia that retains a grip over the national psyche.
