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In Support of Tolerance, Equality, Difference
Race Equality and Cultural Diversity in Education
Please note: This list was compiled by the Insted Consultancy, which specialises in issues of equality and diversity in education. For a fuller and more up-to-date list of websites concerned with equality and diversity in education, click here.
- Government Policies
- Lesson plans and classrom activities
- Culture and identity
- Racism and Islamophobia
- Teaching about controversial issues
- Refugees and people seeking asylum
- English as an additional language
- Links with schools in other countries
- Citizenship education
- European dimensions
- Suppliers, bookshops and publishers
There is a guide for schools and local authorities about the requirements and implications of the Equality Act 2010, last updated in October 2012, at http://www.insted.co.uk/legal-frameworks.pdf
An initial summary of the principal implications for schools since 1 October 2010 was updated by the Department for Education in September 2012 at:
www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/inclusionandlearnersupport/inclusion/
equalityanddiversity/a0064570/the-equality-act-2010.
DfE guidance on the conduct of equality impact assessments (EQUIAs), last updated in April 2012,
is at:
www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/policiesandprocedures/equalityanddiversity/a0077522/equality-analyses-equias-workbook
Lesson plans and classroom activities
Websites containing lesson plans and classroom activities include the following. They are from a range of different countries, including Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland and the United States.
Act Global – citizenship education at key stage 3
Anti-Defamation League – interfaith, antisemitism, hate and extremism
Antisectarian Education – 'Don’t give it, don't take it'
East End Eye – prejudice, discrimination, equalities
Facing History and Ourselves – prejudice, religion, belonging
Free-D – unpopular and extremist views
Insted Consultancy – paper on concepts and clasroom activities
Kick It Out - combating racism in football, and in society more generally
Kiddiesville Football Club – exploits of an imaginary football team
Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility – current affairs
Multicultural Pavilion – wide range of equality and diversity issues
Racism No Way – including quizzes, webquests and news items
Refugee Stories – tackling myths and prejudice
Schools Linking Network – who am I? who are we? where are we?
Teaching Tolerance – current affairs and prejudice
Tide Centre – cities, language, identity, stories
Word Generation – academic language and current issues
Young, Muslim and Citizen – empowerment, identity and change
There is clear and useful information about cultural diversity in Britain at http://www.bbc.co.uk/londonlive. Click on the icon for United Colours of London. Basic facts are provided about ten separate communities: Bangladeshi, Caribbean, Chinese, Ethiopian, Greek, Indian, Irish, Pakistani, Turkish and West African. The focus is on London, but most of the information is relevant for the whole of Britain.
The BBC has valuable sites on black history for school pupils at http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/archive/histfile/mystery.htm, and with particular reference to its excellent Windrush series, http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/archive/windrush.
The Britkid site, funded by Comic Relief, is well worth visiting. Lively and enjoyable, it is intended in the first instance for primary school pupils in areas where there are few people of African, Asian or Caribbean background. But its interest is in fact much wider. It was updated in 2002 and is well worth visiting for valuable ideas and insights. The address is http://www.britkid.org/
Based on the Britkid concept, there is an anti-bullying site entitled http://www.coastkid.org. It focuses on the relationships, behaviours and conflicts that arise between nine young people in an imaginary school on the south coast.
The Blacknet site is lively and interactive, and contains an eclectic and fascinating collection of materials, including not only much of historical interest and but also valuable information about the present. Its address is http://www.blacknet.co.uk. There are extensive links to other relevant sites.
Similarly there is a wealth of information about black communities in Britain at http://www.everygeneration.co.uk, the winner of the website category in the 2003 Race in the Media (RIMA) awards scheme run by the Commission for Racial Equality.
The official Black History Month website is at
http://www.black-history-month.co.uk
Channel Four http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/blackhistorymap/ has a gateway to websites about Asian and black history across Great Britain and Ireland. One can search for sites by location, period of history and subject.
There is vast archive about migration, with many personal stories, at http://www.movinghere.org.uk
The 100 Great Black Britons list http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/home.html reflects the history of the black community over the past 1000 years.
At http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/ there are virtual books and journeys about the black and Asian presence in Britain, 1500-1850, set up in association with the Black and Asian Studies Association.
The author Yinka Sunmonu http://www.yinkasunmonu.com runs a site containing a valuable list of important works of black literature.
For information about Islam and British Muslims, it is valuable to visit the IQRA Trust at http://www.iqratrust.org.uk. In August 2003 the Muslim Council of Britain set up an excellent and comprehensive portal about Islam and this is now an invaluable place to start enquiries.
The Muslim Heritage site http://www.muslimheritage.com has excellent materials on the history of Islamic civilisation, concentrating in particular on developments in science and technology.
There is a substantial list of sites dealing with Islamic culture at http://www.insted.co.uk/websites.html.
The Indobrit http://www.indobrit.com site has been set up to discuss issues of interest to the younger generation of British people who are of Indian, particularly Gujarati, heritage.
Youthweb, developed by Soft Touch Community Arts, is a lively site for secondary students, and for teachers and youth workers. The materials on racism and identity have been created by young people in Leicester. On the home page click on the Respect button. The site is at http://www.youth-web.org.uk.
Chapter 6 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report is at
http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm42/4262/sli-06.htm and is well worth downloading, printing and studying. There is also much valuable material about the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry on the Guardian site, http://www.guardian.co.uk/race, and the site of the 1990 Trust, http://www.blink.org.uk.
The document Evaluating Educational Inclusion: guidance for inspectors and schools, contains a useful four-page annex entitled Issues for Inspection arising from the Macpherson Report. This quotes and explains the recommendations in the report that apply to schools, and refers also to the valuable Ofsted report issued in 1999, Raising the Attainment of Minority Ethnic Pupils: school and LEA responses.
An impressive LEA project in response to the report is an awards scheme for schools set up by Leeds.
Campaigns against racism in and around football grounds are a significant development in recent years. Much valuable information is available from the Football Unites Racism Divides project (FURD) set up by Sheffield United, http://www.furd.org. The national Show Racism the Red Card campaign is at http://www.srtrc.org.
With regard to campaigns on other topics, there is valuable information at the website of the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, http://www.carf.demon.co.uk.
There is substantial coverage of racism at the site of the Institute of Race Relations. One of the institutes valuable services is the provision of a weekly newsletter principally about events reported in local newspapers.
There are extracts from the 2004 report of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia , including a paper entitled Islamophobia and Race Relations, at http://www.insted.co.uk/islam.
The Tasneem Project http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/headscarf.htm has a substantial collection of materials, articles and news items about Islam and Islamophobia.
The National Association of Schoolmasters and Women Teachers has compiled a useful booklet on Islamophobia. Its available at their website http://www.nasuwt.org.uk and also in print. It contains several useful guidelines for teaching about Islam and Islamophobia and reprints advice to schools issued by the Government after 9/11.
The Insted consultancy has published workshop papers on dealing with racist incidents in schools at http://www.insted.co.uk/race.html.
Teaching about controversial issues
Many organisations have issued sets of guidelines over the years. One of the best is Teaching on Controversial Issues: guidelines for teachers by Alan Shapiro, writing for Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR) Metropolitan Area, United States. It can be found at http://www.teachablemoment.org/ideas/teachingcontroversy.html.
A controversial issue, Shapiro recalls, is one on which there are conflicting definitions, facts, assumptions, opinions and solutions, competing feelings and values, and public debates and disagreements. It is also well worth visiting http://www.esrmetro.org for a wealth of practical ideas for teaching responsibly and professionally about current controversial issues.
The national ESR office has published a substantial document entitled Talking to Children about War and Violence in the World. It can be downloaded from http://www.esrnational.org. The purpose is to help adults think about the impact of war on young people, understand how childrens needs differ at various ages, and choose appropriate responses.
Other useful papers about controversial issues include Tips for Teaching Controversial Issues at http://www.streetlaw.org/controversy2.html and a paper about Iraq issued by the Citizenship Foundation at http://www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk.
The BBC Newsround site http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews provides lesson plans. At the time of the Iraq conflict they included Reporting on Conflict why do we say truth is the first casualty of war?; Kids Anti-War Marches the strengths and weaknesses of non-violent conflict resolution; and Iraq Briefing produce a briefing document for journalists reporting the war. There was also a simple quiz as a warm-up activity and there were several briefing papers written for the 814 age-group.
The Rethinking Schools website, based in the United States, has a wide range of materials for teachers about the current international situation. There are maps, statistics, notes on history, suggestions for poetry and songs, facts about Islam and about Arab culture and civilisation, definitions and discussions of terrorism, details of anti-war campaigns, resource lists and several lesson plans. The overall orientation is clearly against the American governments current policies. The address is http://www.rethinkingschools.org/war.
The National Union of Teachers provided clear and comprehensive guidance entitled War in Iraq the impact on schools. It is available as a PDF document and also as a Word document so that you can re-format and customise it, if you wish, for your own school. It can be found through http://www.teachers.org.uk.
The Culham Institute prepared materials for school assemblies and is well worth visiting at http://www.culham.ac.uk. The titles include The Dove of Hope, Friends not Enemies, and Never Alone. There are also suggestions for prayers, hymns and songs, and in an essay entitled Primary Schools and Images of War there are some useful guidelines for planning collective worship.
Judith Myers-Walls, a child development specialist based at Purdue University, Indiana, published When War is in the News in February 2003 at http://www.ces.purdue.edu/terrorism. There are also several other useful papers at this site, intended in particular for teachers and parents of the very young.
The American Psychological Association has a wide range of checklists and papers for parents and teachers, including valuable material on resilience.
Refugees and people seeking asylum
For a wide range of information and resources on refugees and asylum-seekers, visit the Refugee Council, http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk.
Specifically on educational matters, and for much useful advice and guidance, go to http://www.refugeeeducation.co.uk.
The Praxis site http://www.praxis.org.uk has a lot of useful material about media treatment of asylum and refugee issues, and also a number of stories by refugees to Britain recounting their experiences.
For valuable ideas, resources and links about Refugee Week, celebrated each year in June, go to http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk.
For World Refugee Day, there are ideas and resources at http://www.worldrefugeeday.info/
There are resources relating to recent events, including a set of material and full-text documents concerning UK proposals for transit processing centres and regional protection zones at http://www.asylumrights.net
There is a valuable discussion group for teachers, with information about new resources and events, at refed-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.
To subscribe, simply send an empty message.
The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns provides much useful information about legal matters, and stories about individuals and families. The website is at http://www.ncadc.org.uk.
On opposition to the governments segregation policies and proposals its well worth visiting http://www.segregation.org.uk.
The Institute for Race Relations has published articles and papers about what it calls xeno-racism, and these have a European as well as a British dimension. Details at http://www.irr.org.uk/
English as an additional language
A wealth of practical teaching ideas can be found at the Collaborative Learning Project http://www.collaborativelearning.org, EAL Teaching Strategies, http://www.eal-teaching-strategies.com/index.html and the Gordon Ward Consultancy http://www.racingtoenglish.co.uk/
There is much valuable information on the Portsmouth site:
http://www.www.emas.portsmouth.gov.uk.
The National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC) provides advice on a range of policy and practice matters relating to English as an additional language at http://www.naldic.org.uk.
There are sections on its very substantial website on teaching and learning, professional development, initial teacher education, publications and resources, and research and statistics.
The Northern Association of Support Services concerned with language and bilingualism (NASSEA) has a website at http://www.nassea.org.uk. There are details here about conferences and courses in northern England, and links to downloadable documents produced in northern LEAs.
It is well worth joining the EAL-BILINGUAL google group. Teachers of EAL throughout Britain use it to share information, ideas and queries, all closely related to practice. There is information at http://groups.google.com/group/eal-bilingual?hl=en.
There are thousands of useful and stimulating ideas at the website of Larry Ferlazzo in the United States: http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=168021.
For an extensive range of academic and practical papers about bilingual education in the United States it is well worth visiting the excellent collection of papers at:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bilingual/resources.shtml.
Links with schools in other countries
The Global Gateway http://www.globalgateway.org is a new international website, enabling those involved in education across the world to engage in creative partnerships. It is a one-stop-shop, providing quick access to comprehensive information on how to develop an international dimension to education.
Windows on the World provides assistance with finding partners in other countries. Its address is http://www.wotw.org.uk.
The Department for International Development funds a programme to encourage global awareness in UK schools through links with schools in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Its at http://www.wotw.org.uk/northsouth. Amongst other things, it contains information about the financial resources that are available as grants. Such information can also be obtained by writing to world.links@britishcouncil.org.
For curriculum materials on citizenship education more generally, particularly with regard to Key Stages 3 and 4, go to the Centre for Citizenship Studies in Education at the University of Leicester. There is a wealth here of valuable ideas and advice, and information about resources and other sites. The address is http://www.citizenship-global.org.uk.
There is information about government policy, expectations and requirements at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/citizenship.
For resources on a world dimension in the curriculum, the Development Education Centre in Birmingham has a wealth of useful information and materials. The address is http://www.tidec.org.
Further sources of materials about world affairs include:
Save the Children at http://www.savethechildren.org.uk
Oxfam at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet
Worldwide Fund for Nature at http://www.wwf-uk.org
The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), based in Vienna, is establishing a sound reputation as a provider of reliable information. Its website is at http://eumc.eu.int.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, based in Strasbourg, is an activity of the Council of Europe. It has representatives from 43 different countries. The website is at http://www.coe.int.
The European Multicultural Foundation and Minorities of Europe are based in London and Coventry respectively. Their sites are at http://www.em-foundation.org.uk and http://www.moe-online.com.
Suppliers, booksellers and publishers
Educational books, dolls, puppets, puzzles and posters can be ordered through http://www.positive-identity.com. It is also well worth visiting Multicultural Books, formerly Paublo Books, at http://www.multiculturalbooks.co.uk They have over 6000 titles and Blossom Jackson blossom@multiculturalbooks.demon.co.uk is pleased to welcome enquiries from teachers and to give advice.
The Willesden Bookshop has lists of multicultural collections (including many valuable materials imported from the United States) at http://www.willesdenbookshop.co.uk.
Letterbox Library has an extensive list entitled Celebrating Equality and Diversity in the Best Childrens Books. Its website is at http://www.letterboxlibrary.com.
The principal publishing house specialising in race and diversity issues in education is Trentham Books. Their catalogue is at http://www.trentham-books.co.uk.