"Anti-racist" education research
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Anti-racist education research
Abstract or prefatory statement
[edit] Relevance of the Sociology of Education in the United Kingdom
A basic question that concerns the development of the academic study of education is about the degree to which academic scholarship and political advocacy should be considered separate enterprises. Amongst many other places, this basic, historical question has received attention in the Sociology of Education in the United Kingdom. Here debate has been between defenders of subtle realism and proponents of more action-based research. The discourse that surrounds 'anti-racist' education research is of particular interest. See, for instance,
Martin Hammersley's portrayal. What is at issue is not one's personal orientation to racist activity in everyday life, but the nature of the academic study of racism in society. The larger questions involved are far from trivial, as Hammersley illuminates. His overall question is straightforward, and one that is relevant to the academic study of education. I translate it as:
Does the abandonment of a foundationalist epistemology require one to take up extreme, action-oriented epistemological alternatives like relativism, standpoint theory, or instrumentalism?
