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This
book offers an historical analysis of the central role played by the educational
process in Britain in creating and perpetuating an identification of black
people as both an alien and a 'problem'. With meticulous research, Ian Grosvenor
documents national educational policy-making in this field, covering state
level approaches to black students as they continually changed at least in
rhetoric from assimilation, to integration and then multiculturalism. He also
provides fascinating case study material on local education authority policies
in Birmingham.
The author concludes with a reflection on the possibilities of producing a
transformative historical narrative of the nation, which would recognise the
historical experiences of Britain's black population, and thus could bring
to an end the enduring postwar practices of exclusion.
Ian Grosvenor is Head of History at Newman College.
'Assimilating Identities has at least two chapters that reveal more about
the abiding racism within the British school system that almost anything else
in print...This is a finely written and revealing record of a vital dimension
of British educational history.'
Chris Searle, Tribune.