Critical and Emerging Discourses in Multicultural Education Literature: A Review

This article has three objectives. First, it examines critical discourses in the academic literature on multicultural education that point to the major conceptual flaws in multicultural education theory that led to practices that have achieved effects opposite to the intent of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. Second, it identifies some of the suggestions being made in the context of the "post-multiculturalism" discourse on how to overcome these flaws in multicultural education theory and practice. And, third, it discusses some possible implications of the key findings of the review for multicultural education. Current multicultural education practices in Canada based on ethno-racial distinctions (i.e., curricula essentializing knowledge about "Other" cultures and celebrating them) have not contributed to the elimination of racism nor the unequal treatment of minority non-White students, nor have they led to the critical examination of the dominant White, middle-class Eurocentric culture. However, the review also demonstrates that the complexity of the issues identified as problematic within multicultural theory and practice makes it difficult to formulate a unified multicultural education mission that speaks to the multiplicity of identities, fluidity of culture, negotiation of power in the cultural space, and the new politics of difference based on universal dignity and equality. It is even more difficult to organize and implement such a mission especially in the absence of a federal multicultural education policy. Suggestions as to how provincial ministries of education might use the identified shifts in the meaning of culture, cultural difference, cultural identities, citizenship, and civic and national identities are provided.