Critical Theory and Multicultural Education(Perspectives in Education)

Critical theory has been used to both inspire and challenge multicultural education in North America by addressing the ways diversity—in all its forms—is affected by capitalist social relations. Following the birth of the multicultural education movement during the 1960s U.S. civil rights era, poor and superficial engagement with multicultural education led to varying and contradictory definitions, aims, and approaches to multiculturalism as practiced in our schools. Scholars have used critical theory to illuminate in exactly what ways “conservative,” “left,” and “left-liberal” forms of multicultural education have moved away from, and ultimately work against, the original purpose of the multicultural education movement, calling for both “critical” and “revolutionary multiculturalism.” The idea of a critical multiculturalism as developed through a critical theory lens was first advanced during ...