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Journal of Educational Change

, Volume 9, Issue 3, pp 261–280 | Cite as

Racializing educational change: Melting pot and mosaic influences on educational policy and practice

  • Allison Skerrett
Article
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Abstract

This article racializes educational change by examining literature on the history of educational approaches to diversity in the United States and Ontario, Canada to demonstrate how their respective national myths for engaging with diversity—the melting pot and mosaic—have impacted their educational policies and practices over three definable eras of educational change. The educational policies and practices of the two countries are evaluated in relation to four significant and—within the existing literature—widely used political and educational strategies for responding to racial and ethnocultural diversity in schools. The paper cautions that the current era of curriculum standardization and high stakes assessments that reflects a melting pot approach to education reinstitutes and reinforces an inequitable vertical mosaic structure of schooling experiences and outcomes for diverse student populations. It urges policy makers to consider how the current movement toward post-standardization, which reflects a mosaic approach, is presently influencing educational policy and practice in international contexts and achieving more just and effective learning outcomes for diverse student groups.

Keywords

Curriculum standardization Educational change Educational policy Multicultural education Standardized testing Student diversity 
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© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.College of Education, Department of Curriculum and InstructionThe University of Texas at AustinAustinUSA

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