Understanding Critical Race Theory And Its Implications For Education Policy In An Essay.

Development of education and education policy

Development of education and education policy is highly required to make the development and advance the educational system. In Britain also, the education policy develops according to the time and the need for making the system advance so that the literacy rate increase and the maximum of the population can achieve their basic right to education. Critical Race Theory is basically a movement that was occurred by the scholars and activists of civil rights to challenge and change the injustice approach to racial groups in society (Britannica, 2021). Though this movement and this theoretical approach talk about racism and racial difference in this society, this theory is useful for understanding education inequality. This paper will brief about the critical race theory and will help to understand the inequality of education through the discussion. Also, the development of the education policy in Britain enhances the educational system, which helps the society to reduce its inequality through its new policy and system. Also, this paper will focus on the concept of multiculturalism which is related to this notion of perspective, to have an understanding of education study.

Critical Race Theory is one of the movements which happened to examine United States law and regulation. This framework is based on legal analysis that race is not a natural phenomenon and which is biologically inherited by a certain group of people in this society. Critical race theorists, scholars and activists held this notion of thought that race is also inherent in the legislation of a united nation, which creates inequality in the different institutions between African Americans and White Americans (Brtannica, 2021). The inequality between white and black and removing this from society is the main objective of this theory. Moreover, another objective is to eliminate the injustice hierarchy of the structure of society. This was emerged during the 1970s to understand the legal system which was existed for a certain group of people. The main concept of critical race theory is more than 40 years old, and the main suggestion of this theory is that race is a social construct and racism is socially constructed in society and in every institution through legal approaches and policies (Fortin, 2021). This theoretical approach seeks the attention of some activists, and according to them, this framework does not make conscious of the racism of this society; rather, this increases the inequality among the people in this society. This emerged during the 1970s and early 1980s with the hand of legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberle Crenshaw and Richard Delgado. The Academic understanding of this subject differs from the real concept of this theory as this theory focuses on the negative dynamics more than the main objective of this. According to the academician, this negative approach for such groups will naturally increase the inequality among the individual. Thus, this theory is irrelevant as this creates confusion that is this theory aims for social justice or if it helps to increase racism. This theory states that racism is a natural and everyday part of life, which is the main point to contradict as racism is not a natural phenomenon; this is a biological condition. Also, the second approach of this theory which is highly contradictory, is that this theory shows that 'all' white people are the oppressor of this society, which is also a highly racist statement. Thus, from this point of view, different opinions and contradictions emerged. Intellectual debate about this topic started in America, which focused on the curriculum of education and suggested that this type of contradictory theory should not be part of the education and learning curriculum. The longstanding debates take a look at educational policies and practices and urge to change the system. As this learning curriculum is not at all helping society to reduce inequality, but it reinforces the idea of racism. The social and cultural background of these social issues and concepts is the relevant teaching curriculum. Nevertheless, to make the educational space safe and comfortable for the black students and other reserved students this is important to revise the curriculum as this is not necessary to identify these concepts by relating to CRT. The approaches to studying these concepts and theories are harming society, especially the black students of the society. Protest against this theory became popular and turned out as headlines nationally and internationally. The main objective of this movement regarding this theory is to change and develop the educational system, which suggests that cultural conflict over this critical race theory is increasing, especially in the school battlegrounds, which should remain on focus by the American government so that it does not get increase.

Critical Race Theory

As the theorists of critical race theory reject the concept of colourblindness and acknowledge this theory with differentiation and disparities which is existed in the United Nations between the individuals who eventually question and analyze the structural hierarchical form of institution and without any bad intention, this approach enforces the racist hierarchical approach in this system (Williamson, 2022). Thus, understanding the main objective of this theory fails as it does not focus on the black people's voices and stories. Many professors shared their views and suggested their opinion, and critically analyzed this theory. However, the question is why suddenly these discussions were coming up as a headline.

The counter-argument and critical discussion increased, especially after the incident of killing George Floyd, which directly or indirectly encouraged and provoked the conversation about racism and the structure of the United States (Borter, 2021). President Donald J. Trump issued this to federal agencies against this theory and stated this as "divisive, un-American propaganda" (Borter, 2021). However, the Biden administration rejected his request, but at that time already, the movement had turned out full-fledged and requests from them were coming up to ban CRT for the development of their children and to change the educational system policies and curriculum.

CRT is not a diverse and inclusive teaching curriculum and practice; rather, it helps to institutionalize racism in society. This debate about including or excluding this subject from the learning curriculum affects the educational system and the young individuals and makes them uncomfortable, especially black students. This debate turned out as a serious issue and an existential threat to the United States. This debate influences the politicians, parents, many educators and right-wing media to condemn the usage of the term "white privilege" and discussion of racism, especially in U.S. public schools, so that it does not get the chance to affect the student's mentality negatively (Borter, 2021). Parents were bombarded in the school meeting to stop teaching CRT in the wrong way as this only promotes an anti-people society in America, which not only includes black people but also it includes white people. After longstanding protests, eight Republican states in the U.S. can achieve to get the policies passed, which restrict and regularized with the help of legislation that how the concept and the history of race should be taught (Borter, 2021). Many educators said that if the educational system eliminates this concept from the curriculum, it will not harm their future. The legislation also states that if any teacher violates their rule by teaching this concept of racism and slavery in a wrong approach, then their license of teaching will be revoked.

In the year 2020, when the Biden administration rejected the request for excluding the critical race theory from the curriculum, many educators and activists started to protest and counter attacked the government. More than eighty Academic institutions and specialists, and research scholars have accused the American government and system of misinterpreting and adopting the wrong way to teach this theory. Maximum of the researchers were from education and social science backgrounds (Weale, 2020). The controversies regarding the approaches and teaching materials took a large form. Followed by changes in education policy can be observed. The Department of Education announced that schools should not take any resource materials which are extremely political and controversial and teach in the wrong approach, which will reinforce negativity. Taking the resources from the different organizations for teaching is considered to avoid controversies. However, the wrong approach and use of wrong material, if it is not extreme then also it can endorse any one side of it. Many suggested that this concept will prevent the teachers from using different materials of Black Lives Matter and other marginalized groups to express and teach their stories which will eventually limit anti-racism teaching (Weale, 2020). Some educators support and protest against this educational system which provides critical controversies regarding this sensitive issue, and requested to stop teaching it or at least change the resource materials and the approaches to teaching.

Multiculturalism

This most controversial subject in the United States creates tension in political and social systems. Many campaign groups started to pr omote petitions, and signatures were increasing. 'Don't divide us', the name of the campaign, was attractive, which also helped to influence the people to take part in this campaign (Williamson, 2022). This ideology to taught the whites that they are the victims and that they are the main reason for this discrimination in this society; on the other hand, black people are not feeling comfortable due to this arising controversy, making the situation terrible. This theory started to generalize the factors which affect the mentality of the students as this outbreak that schools are the main place where this topic is taught. The factor of generalizing the concept and the CRT's statement both are argument able and thus created a major issue at that time. Council suggested that to develop the teaching system and overall education system, proper "racial literacy training: to promote "anti-racist schools' strategy" is required, which will help to gain an understanding of how to approach this concept instead of taking this as a colourblind approach (Williamson, 2022). The shift from a Eurocentric approach to diversifying and decolonizing the curriculum is needed. The need to change the CRT based training for the children evokes as this training is doing nothing good with the education system and policy; rather, it is affecting and dividing students. Thus, the announcement from the Department of Education suggests that every school remain politically impartial while teaching or selecting the resources for the students learning. Political issues related to any sensitive subject, especially racism and social justice, could be a part of the teaching and learning curriculum, but it should be in a balanced and factual way so that students get to know about the different opinions about the same, instead of providing with generalizing views and perspectives. The department considered that remaining politically impartial, especially in the school education system, is extremely important for the student's growth and wellbeing. So that they do not get influenced by one view, however, this development of the educational system, especially for the students of K-12, was necessary to bring a change in the guidance and duty of the teachers and education (Williamson, 2022). A new educational system to develop and guide the children and teachers for the training to promote anti-racist schools structure is a new factor, but the request of many parents, politicians and educators to ban the teaching of CRT in schools was legally accepted in many states of United States (Benwell and Rose, 2021, p224). They legally prohibit the structural racism and teaching of CRT. Five states have successfully prohibited this, and more than fifteen states are in under process to prohibit teaching CRT in schools, which is a drastic change in schools' educational system after a number of decades. Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, and Tennessee; these five states that have been legally restricted the teaching of CRT in schools in the United States (Salas-Rodriguez, 2021). Oklahoma's law says that lessons should not make any individual uncomfortable or guilty so that they face an issue on their mental health. The aim of the legislation was to prevent discussion of anything which is highly political and racial and also involves sensitive issues. However, this aim to do not promote division between the individuals can be contradictory for some educators as they opined that totally banning CRT can be a form of white supremacy and power against the black groups to portray their stories and experiences (George, 2021). Nevertheless, the change of teaching approaches is beneficial and needed, but the restriction for teaching anything related to slavery and racism will limit the children to know about the black people's struggles and background history and experiences. However, to change the educational system in the name of development by removing CRT can be seen as the power and supremacy of white people to change the system. This authority can also be the subject of criticism and controversies. Thus, this can be identified and observed from the discussion that CRT is an ideology and a topic that consists of different opinions and different viewpoints, which influence to emerge controversies and conflicts between individuals regarding its aim. This debate turned into a social issue in the United States and affected society's structure. Primarily this concept is directly related to the educational system and the structure and encourages people to stand against this ideology and to change, revise and develop a new notion of educational policy and strategies, especially for all the public schools in the United States.

Origins of Critical Race Theory

Multiculturalism was a part of Britain that established and expanded from the British Isles to North America, Australia and to the significant parts of Southeast Asia and India. The massive expansion of British culture remains its impact and effects nowadays also, in languages, law, culture and education (Kymlicka, 2018).

The impact of British expansion and immigration was a part of Britain for many years. However, the difficulty in adopting multiculturalism and society with its characteristics makes the social and historical context difficult (Czerska-Shaw, 2018).

The philosophy and central concept behind this multiculturalism ensure plurality in the society and culture which will acknowledge diversity and will support each other by ending the discriminating factor of society, such as racial discrimination, ethnicity and many more. Through this concept, many different anti-discriminative strategies and policies were taken in the 1960s and 1990s, which were directly based on race in Britain and their discrimination. However, this policy of discrimination was not enough for multiculturalism as it did not help society and culture. Because this program and policies were not helpful for specific groups and communities to meet their aims. Thus, only racial basis policies fail to achieve the goal to make society cross-cultural. As an outcome, ethnocultural groups and communities of the society are living 'parallel lives' within their own community only (Czerka-Shaw, 2018). At this point, the government started changing its meaning and which has been a debatable concept for decades. This concept includes social cohesion and nation identity as well as citizenship. For earning citizenship, citizenship education and curriculum were introduced, were the newcomers to Britain had to give their eligibility test regarding 'language and life citizenship'. The shift from 'good subject' to 'good citizen' this intention has its goal to create Britain's core culture of political to individual freedom and liberty. The emphasis on active citizenship through this process was to make Britain's society integrated and to shape its culture and society. This citizenships test and education aim to proceed toward a test of British culture and history. Through this step, multiculturalism turns into a fact remembering multiple-choice test. Both sides' approaches to multiculturalism were reduced, and this policy disposed of the citizen and migrants who already had the desired qualities of Britishness (Czerka-Shaw, 2018).

After this change, the change in anti-discrimination policy, which was a backbone of the Race Relations framework since 1960, collapsed because of the emergence of the new policy. The Equality Act 2010 included every anti-discriminative law under one umbrella. However, the aim of this equality strategy was to establish equality for all groups and communities of the society without discriminating and by providing equal opportunities. However, at the same time, this equality strategy was not that effective as this did not consist of the protection of certain groups and communities, which reduced the level of multiculturalism. However, this equality act does not abolish or eliminate the protected status of certain groups, but due to this strategy, the categorization gets enlarged. On the other hand, the extension of these strategies can also be seen as the protected characteristics of multiculturalism as this will help the other social groups to change their attitudes because of the same opportunity and equal policies for every group and will help for a diversified society. Also, the soft attitude towards ethnic minorities has decreased because of the foundation of the new anti-discriminative policy. Though the culture has its feature of multiculturalism, it deduced the importance of the term multiculturalism. The merger of racial relations to the equality act reduced the tension regarding race, which actually swept off its major factors. According to Casey's review, this integration and opportunity actually segregated British society. On the one hand, multiculturalism has the potential to enforce different policies of education and civic participation, and this establishment of the new act can be seen as a success of multiculturalism. Nevertheless, the debate says that this scheme has failed to create a 'new way' of the foundation of multiculturalism in British society. Furthermore, thus multiculturalism and its effectiveness have died and lost their spirit (Czerska-Shaw, 2018). Also, the suggestion of David Blunkett's proposal regarding proficiency in the English language in 2001 and another suggestion that arranged marriage among the south Asian communities, especially from Indian subcontinents, should not be involved created a rapid change. Such political stands and policies actually represent the idea of ending the concept of multiculturalism in society. The head of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, says that this is time to end the political and social aim for multiculturalism and claims it is "out of date".

Debates surrounding CRT

Another reason because of the end of multiculturalism is globalization, which is related to the concept of multiculturalism. Globalization is expanding its features in the world and which helps to spread social and cultural relations between the community. This relation is spreading in terms of science, research, mass communication, technology and the development of economic society. As this is a two-way process, thus, it naturally includes multiculturalism and helps this concept to come to an end (Dursunoglu and Sengun, 2020, p41). However, from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, the multiculturalism concept was in trend as the establishment of diversity in society was necessary because of the presence of the multi-community group. Policies were made for different groups to give priority and rights to them. But, since the mid-1990s, the notion of multiculturalism has changed and evolved the policies and rights which influenced political and social Britain to withdraw from the concept of multiculturalism and to focus on the minority and other communities. Slowly, the notion and the concept started to change by establishing common and equal laws and policies for every citizen and group of the society under an umbrella. Re-assertion of ideas and beliefs of the nation and shared values of the society and for citizenship of the country changed. This change can be coined as a return to assimilation (Kymlicka, 2018). The multiculturalism concept, which focused on the other communities for their safety and priority, deduced its importance after these new policies and assimilation in terms of education, laws, policies, politics and other institutions. The significant changes in the law in the year 2016 and the eligibility test for getting citizenship were the main and major steps to understanding that the notion of multiculturalism has come to its end. This retreat is partly threatened their way of life. But on the other hand, this retreat also claims that the notion of multiculturalism is a notion that actually failed to help the communities and focus on them by providing extra benefits and facilities as this concept does not include social and political structure into this. The people and groups who criticize multiculturalism have the notion that this notion does not denote its proper meaning and concept towards this society because this concept increases the inequality and division in society as this does not contain equal rights and policies for every individual. The development of society came as the biggest problem in this 21^st century (Dursunoglu and Sengun, 2020, p41). The main points which they put forward to think and consider this notion are:

• This concept and a multiculturalist society increase inequality and conflict between the inter-community and groups.
• The difference in culture increases the difficulty to adapt and understand the society, especially for the ethnic groups of the society.
• Immigrants keep themselves outside of the dominant culture of the nation as they are committed to their own groups and communities.

These characteristics of multiculturalism make the western culture complex to establish common and equal policies and rights for every individual irrespective of their background and social recognition to make a mutual connection between the people, which will eventually help the society to develop its structure. For complete assimilation of the society and culture, integration of all communities was required (Dursunoglu and Sengun, 2020, p41). Thus, equal rights for minority groups, immigrants and dominant groups of the society should come together with common values, beliefs and norms in the public place. Thus, withdrawing and failing multiculturalism was intended.

Impact on education

However, from the above discussion, this can be concluded that the main concept and theoretical perspective of CRT were creating difficulties and conflict among the people of the society. The teaching and learning curriculum of Critical Race Theory created a major complex situation in society. This theoretical notion has different views, which were not directly harmful but it was affecting society without intention. The teaching approach and way which was not done in a proper way should be revised in order to maintain solidarity between the individuals and to create harmony. This eventually turned out as a protest, and they went against including this in the learning curriculum of schools. Thus, revising and changing educational policy with the help of the government and the department of education made a mark on the society and education of Britain. Also, on the other hand, Britain's society has developed its features and policies not only in terms of education but also the changes in the laws and policies to eliminate and limit the belief and idea of multiculturalism. Britain makes its entry towards the change of the existing system and ideology, which affects the larger part of the society and culture.   

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