Multiculturalism, policy and teaching

Racial and ethnic diversity typifY Australian and New Zealand/Aotearoa societies, but not their school curricula. Not surprisingly, school knowledge in these and similar countries has been questioned because of the exclusion of racial/ethnic minorities from curriculum representations of their societies. Neither they, nor their experiences and interests, have been adequately and appropriately represented in the knowledge disseminated in classrooms in these countries. Consequently, there has been distortion: curriculum statements, guidelines and policies tell students about their society from a narrow and exclusive perspective. Efforts are being made to redress this distortion, some ofwhich are reviewed in this chapter.