Teaching Racism - Or Tackling It: Multicultural Stories from White Beginning Teachers

How do beginning teachers in white areas come to understand issues of equality and particularly of race? This book reveals the findings of research into two university providers of teacher education in Britain, one traditionally faculty-based and the other school-based. Here are the stories of 24 teachers in elementary schools.

The tactics by which Black and Asian children are made "white by proxy" so that teachers can avoid recognizing their ethnic status are catalogued in a typology of disappearance. Theses beginning teachers’ stories illustrate patterns of helplessness, confusion and denial even in the face of overt racism. The author concludes with recommendations to improve teacher education.

Dr. Jones lectures in English at John Moores University.