Provided by Institute of Education EPrints
Critical Race Theory and Education:
Racism and antiracism in educational
theory and praxis
David Gillborn*
University of London, UK
What is Critical Race Theory (CRT) and what does it offer educational researchers and
practitioners outside the US? This paper addresses these questions by examining the
recent history of antiracist research and policy in the UK. In particular, the paper argues
that conventional forms of antiracism have proven unable to keep pace with the
development of increasingly racist and exclusionary education polices that operate
beneath a veneer of professed tolerance and diversity. In particular, contemporary
antiracism lacks clear statements of principle and theory that risk reinventing the wheel
with each new study; it is increasingly reduced to a meaningless slogan; and it risks
appropriation within a reformist “can do” perspective dominated by the de-politicized
and managerialist language of school effectiveness and improvement. In contrast, CRT
offers a genuinely radical and coherent set of approaches that could revitalize critical
research in education across a range of inquiries, not only in self-consciously
“multicultural” studies. The paper reviews the developing terrain of CRT in education,
identifying its key defining elements and the conceptual tools that characterise the work.
CRT in education is a fast changing and incomplete project but it can no longer be
ignored by the academy beyond North America.
Introduction
This paper argues that if antiracist research and practice are to survive and flourish we
must learn from the errors of the past and adapt to the new realities of the present. The
latter includes the startlingly successful cultural revolution that is sometimes referred
to as “conservative modernization” (Apple, 2004; Dale, 1989), fuelled and given
added bile through the resurgence of racist nationalism wrapped in the flag of freedom
and security in a “post 9/11” world (Rizvi, 2003). The paper argues that antiracists
internationally have much to gain from an engagement with the growing body of work
in educational scholarship that draws inspiration from a branch of US legal
scholarship known as Critical Race Theory (CRT).
The argument is made through a detailed consideration of antiracist work in
Britain but many of the wider lessons might usefully be considered elsewhere. At a
time when policy borrowing is reaching new heights (Whitty, Power & Halpin, 1998),
both the specifics of educational reform, and the dilemmas facing educational
researchers with a commitment to social justice, are remarkably similar in many
Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL, UK. Email
d.gillbom@,ioe.ac.uk