David Gillborn

University of Birmingham · Centre for Research in Race and Education (CRRE)

Unpacking Critical Race Theory (CRT) and exploring why it has become a focus in politics across the US and the UK, White Lies uses CRT to expose the systemic racism that shapes education. It charts the coordinated campaigns – involving think tanks, mainstream media and politicians – that have tried to silence antiracism in the wake of George Floyd’...

Adopting an approach shaped by critical race theory (CRT) the paper proposes a radical analysis of the nature of race inequality in the English educational system. Focusing on the relative achievements of White school leavers and their Black (African Caribbean) peers, it is argued that long standing Black/White inequalities have been obscured by a...

The term ‘chumocracy’ has been used to describe a tendency within the UK’s Conservative government to appoint friends and allies to key public positions; this image seriously underestimates the scale and influence of networks that shape policy and supply individuals to key roles. This paper maps networks that converge around conservative and someti...

This chapter applies Critical Race Theory (CRT) to an analysis of racism in contemporary education. I explore the ‘business-as-usual’ forms of racism that saturate the everyday world of schools; and show how so-called colour-blindness closes down critical discussion and denies the significance of racism. Finally, the chapter reflects on the nature...

The article responds to an autobiographical piece by Dr Louise Taylor, describing moves toward greater race equity in a UK university. The authors reflect on the pitiful state of race equity in higher education, the willed ignorance about everyday racism that characterizes the sector, and the racism present in psychology as a discipline.

This opinion piece, published in the British newspaper 'The Guardian', reflects on the latest attempt to close down antiracism by arguing that it damages poor white kids. The article shows that this is a long standing theme in public policy, which misrepresents the facts and risks stirring up race hatred.

This report summarizes the best-available evidence concerning race inequities in the English education system. We outline the scale of race inequity (especially in terms of achievement and exclusions from school) and explore the powerful, and often hidden, operation of institutional racism. Among the key issues we address are: • the complex and e...

The chapter uses interviews with UK policy-makers to explore the role of Whiteness in the everyday world of policy formation. Greater diversity among policymakers is not merely welcome, in terms of more equitably representing the composition of the electorate, it is probably imperative if public policy is to seriously address changing the racist st...

This short article discusses the return of racist ideas about intelligence and genetics. It points to the fact that a senior advisor in government has written in positive terms about 'evolutionary' influences on IQ and that the Prime Minister's deputy spokesperson recently refused to state their position on the relative intelligence of White and Bl...

The author argues that color-blind ideology amounts to a refusal to deal with the reality of racism, which protects and extends White racial advantage, as well as shares thoughts on dismantling Whiteness in education.

On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean the interests, fears, and voices of “ordinary” White people have become a prominent part of mainstream political and educational debate. This article reflects on recent developments, including a critique of so-called colorblindness as a form of racism denial and the argument that White people are merely an ethnic...

Since its introduction in 2017, QuantCrit (Quantitative Critical Race Theory) has been taken up by researchers internationally, and in numerous disciplines, as they explore how statistical methods can (sometimes unwittingly) disguise racist inequity and block attempts to advance racial justice. In this chapter the authors explore key questions that...

Derrick Bell's thesis, that racism is a permanent feature of society, is frequently misrepresented by detractors as signalling a view of racism as monolithic—bold, obvious and unchanging. This paper argues that critical race theory reveals a very different understanding of racism as relentless, yet fluid, and quick to morph depending on current cir...

Quantitative research enjoys heightened esteem among policymakers, media, and the general public. Whereas qualitative research is frequently dismissed as subjective and impressionistic, statistics are often assumed to be objective and factual. We argue that these distinctions are wholly false; quantitative data is no less socially constructed than...

The “Aiming High: African Caribbean Achievement Project” was launched by the DfES (Department for Education & Skills) in November 2003 and aimed to work with leaders of schools to develop a whole school approach to raising the achievement of African Caribbean pupils. The thirty “Aiming High” schools were provided with extra resources including fund...

Drawing on a secondary analysis of official statistics, this paper examines the changing scale of the inequality of achievement between White students and their Black British peers who identify their family heritage as Black Caribbean. We examine a 25-year period from the introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), in 198...

This paper explores the personal reflections of educators and contributors to policy on the shifting status of race equality in education policy in England between 1993 and 2013. The interview participants included some of the most notable figures active in race equality work in England. Part of the paper’s significance is its focus on the perspect...

Final report of a two-year research project funded by the Society for Educational Studies. The project combined two key elements; first, a quantitative analysis of statistical data to provide the first-ever authoritative picture of the changing landscape of educational achievement and experience in relation to ethnic diversity over a 20 year span s...

Crude and dangerous ideas about the genetic heritability of intelligence, and a supposed biological basis for the Black/White achievement gap, are alive and well inside the education policy process but taking new and more subtle forms. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, the paper analyses recent hereditarian writing, in the UK and the USA, and highli...

The article explores the utility of intersectionality as an aspect of critical race theory (CRT) in education. Drawing on research with Black middle-class parents in England, the article explores the intersecting roles of race, class, and gender in the construction and deployment of dis/ability in education. The author concludes that intersectional...

Critical race theory (CRT) views education as one of the principal means by which white supremacy is maintained and presented as normal in society. The article applies CRT to two real-world case studies: changes to education statutes in the state of Arizona (USA) and the introduction of a new measure of educational success in England, the English b...

This paper draws on qualitative data exploring the experiences of first-generation middle-class Black Caribbean-heritage parents, their own parents, and their children. We focus on the different ways in which race and class intersect in shaping attitudes towards education and subsequent educational practices. We argue that the nature of racism has...

Drawing on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and illustrating with examples from the English system, the paper addresses the hidden racist dimension to contemporary education reforms and argues that this is a predictable and recurrent theme at times of economic crisis. Derrick Bell's concept of ‘interest-convergence’ argues that moments of racial progress...

Drawing on data collected during a 2-year Economic and Social Research Council-funded project exploring the educational perspectives and strategies of middle-class families with a Black Caribbean heritage, this paper examines how participants, in professional or managerial occupations, position themselves in relation to the label ‘middle class’. Ou...

The enrolment of middle-class children in extra-curricular activities is a recent trend in many affluent countries. It is part of what Annette Lareau refers to as a classed parenting style – ‘concerted cultivation’ which sees the child as a project with skills and talents to be fostered and developed. Controversially, Lareau argued that class, rath...

This paper reports on data drawn from a study exploring the educational strategies of 62 Black Caribbean heritage middle-class parents. In this paper, we consider the respective roles of race and class in the shaping of parents’ educational strategies, deploying an analysis that focuses on their intersection and seeks to hold both race and class in...

This paper reports on qualitative data that focus on the educational strategies of middle-class parents of Black Caribbean heritage. Drawing on Bourdieu’s key concepts of habitus, capital and field, our focus is an investigation of the differences that are apparent between respondent parents in their levels of involvement with regard to schools. We...

This chapter draws on data collected as part of a 2-year-funded project into the “educational strategies of the Black middle classes.” The project explores and analyses the educational perspectives, strategies, and experiences of Black-Caribbean-heritage, middle-class families. The demands of being a parent from a minority ethnic group and having t...

The article discusses the findings of an ESRC funded project (RES-062-23-1880) which used in-depth interviews to explore the educational experiences and strategies of 62 Black Caribbean parents; the biggest qualitative study of education and the Black middle class yet conducted in the UK. The article focuses on the parents’ interactions with their...

This paper addresses some particular aspects of the complex intersections between race and social class. It is based upon data collected as part of a two-year Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project exploring the ‘Educational strategies of the Black Middle Classes’ (BMC). (‘The Educational Strategies of the Black middle classes’,...

Drawing on data from a two-year ESRC-funded project into The Educational Strategies of the Black Middle Classes,1 this article examines how middle class blacks negotiate survival in a society marked by race and class discrimination. It considers respondents’ school experiences, marked as they are by incidents of Othering and racism and explores bot...

David Gillborn is professor of critical race studies in education at the Institute of Education, University of London. Recently described as one of Britain's leading race theorists, he is the author of numerous books and articles, including Rationing Education (with Deborah Youdell) which won best book in education from the Society for Educational...

In this chapter (pp. 22-25) Gillborn & Vieler-Porter explore the reality of Black educational inequity and institutional racism in England. They contrast the research evidence against the un-evidenced, deficit views asserted by Tony Sewell in his belief that racism is no longer a major issue and that Black educational failure is primarily the fault...

This paper examines students' experience of inner-city education in one of England's most disadvantaged areas. In particular, we reflect on the views of white working-class boys, a group that has recently been identified by policy-makers and the media as especially at risk of educational failure. These boys recognize the educational disadvantage th...

The Nobel Prize winning scientist James Watson was vilified when his views on the supposedly inherent deficiencies of black people became public. The scientific establishment, mainstream media and politicians joined a chorus of disapproval that would seem to evidence a widespread rejection of the old myths of racially ordered intelligence. Unfortun...

This paper argues that race and class inequalities cannot be fully understood in isolation: their intersectional quality is explored through an analysis of how the White working class were portrayed in popular and political discourse during late 2008 (the timing is highly significant). While global capitalism reeled on the edge of financial melt-do...

Including abstract, tabl., bibl. Drawing on the traditions of critical race theory, the paper is presented as a chronicle - a narrative - featuring two invented characters with different histories and expertise. Together they explore the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative approaches to race equality in education. In societies that are structu...

This article replies to Mike Cole's article, in this issue of the journal, on critical race theory (CRT) in general and my application of the approach in particular. The article briefly outlines the central tenets of CRT and then reflects on the character of some of the exchanges between critical race theorists and Marxists on either side of the At...

This Article examines the costs of so-called "free speech" in relation to race,' particularly with reference to debates about a supposed link between race and intelligence/educability. Drawing on an analysis of media coverage in the United Kingdom, I show how Whiteness (a regime of beliefs and attitudes that embodies the interests and assumptions o...

It is tempting to view the Blairite legacy as a simple story of political hypocrisy: a government, swept to power after almost two decades of Conservative rule, promising much but reneging on those commitments and falling back on Thatcherite authoritarian popularism when the going got tough. But that would be too simple a story. The Blairite policy...

Adopting an approach shaped by critical race theory (CRT) the paper proposes a radical analysis of the nature of race inequality in the English educational system. Focusing on the relative achievements of White school leavers and their Black (African Caribbean) peers, it is argued that long standing Black/White inequalities have been obscured by a...

Education policy is not designed to eliminate race inequality but to sustain it at manageable levels. This is the inescapable conclusion of the first major study of the English education system using 'critical race theory'. David Gillborn has been described as Britain's 'most influential race theorist in education'. In this book he dissects the rol...

A characteristic of most urban areas is their ethnic and racial diversity.1 In this chapter I examine how race, and in particular racism, operate in and through contemporary education policy and practice. Building on an analysis of both quantitative and qualitative research in the field, the chapter examines how race inequity has been influenced by...

The article addresses the nature of power relations that sustain and disguise white racial hegemony in contemporary 鈥榳estern鈥�society. Following the insights offered by critical race theory (CRT), white supremacy is conceived as a comprehensive condition whereby the interests and perceptions of white subjects are continually placed centre stage and...

What is Critical Race Theory (CRT) and what does it offer educational researchers and practitioners outside the US? This paper addresses these questions by examining the recent history of anti-racist research and policy in the UK. In particular, the paper argues that conventional forms of anti-racism have proven unable to keep pace with the develop...

Citizenship education is now a required component of the national curriculum that must be taught by all state-funded schools in England. It is constantly highlighted by policy makers as a major innovation that promotes social cohesion in general, and race equality in particular. At the same time, however, the government has continued to pursue a so...

The paper presents an empirical analysis of education policy in England that is informed by recent developments in US critical theory. In particular, I draw on ‘whiteness studies’ and the application of critical race theory (CRT). These perspectives offer a new and radical way of conceptualizing the role of racism in education. Although the US lite...

This book is a major new investigation into the issues of 'race', ethnicity and education, following the educational reforms during the late 1980s. It provides an up-to-date and critical introduction to current issues and major research findings in the field, exploring the teacher-pupil relationship through a detailed account of life in an inner-ci...

In this inaugural professorial lecture, from 2002, Gillborn looks at Institutional Racism in the English education system. He argues that racism saturates the system and is reinforced through the everyday actions of teachers, school leaders and policy makers. Racism finds expression in white people's assumptions about intelligence, ability, discipl...

It is cruelly ironic that in the European Year against Racism and Xenophobia (1997) the British general election was fought between two main parties each vying to be the more patriotic, the more secure in its nationalist credentials. Benedict Anderson’s influential analysis of nations as ‘imagined communities’ highlights in dramatic fashion the myt...

In this article, David Gillborn considers the next round of educational reforms. His cogently argued analysis provides a timely reminder of the extent to which contemporary British education is institutionally racist. Unless, as he urges us, we examine the effects of actions and policies and not merely their intent, the future for inclusion looks b...

Bad blood, feeble-mindedness, genetic inferiority, eugenics … these terms are associated with another age: they are the discredited and disgraced language of a pseudo- scientific tradition that wrought incredible injustice during the 20th century and are widely viewed with contempt. Such terms are no longer used but, we will argue, the same underly...

Following the publication of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report, in 1999, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) commissioned a review of evidence on ‘race’ inequalities in education. Drawing on new evidence, much of it never previously published, this report seeks to place ethnic inequalities within a wider discussion of educational inequ...

This book examines gender, racial/ethnic, and class inequalities in education, analyzing the impact of major reforms and exploring routine practices by which inequalities are reproduced and legitimized. It describes observations and interviews at two British secondary schools that show the costs of reform in terms of pressures on teachers and ratio...

Criticizes social justice policies of the Labour government in the United Kingdom because they promote formal equality in the schools without working for substantive equity in outcomes of education. Naive multiculturalism is an inadequate policy response to the institutionalized racism that pervades the contemporary education system. (SLD)

The paper outlines a critical analysis of the place of ‘race’ issues in the educational policy proposals of Britain's ‘New Labour’ Government, elected in May 1997. The article takes Labour's first White Paper, Excellence in Schools, as its main focus. Superficially, the stated concern to address inequality of opportunity signals a significant break...

This article examines recent research on the variability of educational performance in Britain. The composition of Britain's minority population is reviewed, followed by a discussion of differences in attainment. The bulk of the article explores some of the social processes that lie behind the statistics, especially concerning teacher racism and st...

Racism lies at the heart of the Thatcherite project. This article explores how issues of ‘race’, racism and ethnicity are positioned within the education reforms that have reshaped the British schooling system. Education policy has adopted a largely deracialised discourse such that a concern with ethnic inequalities of achievement and opportunity h...

The late 1980s and early 1990s have witnessed an unprecedented period of top‐down reform in the English educational system. Successive Conservative administrations (first led by Margaret Thatcher, and subsequently by John Major) have sought to introduce the principles and discipline of the market‐place as a means of ‘raising standards’ for ‘every c...

Writing on race and education has tended to neglect questions of pedagogy and lived experience at the school and classroom level. The paper begins to redress this by using qualitative research to examine secondary schools that have given antiracism a high priority. In particular, the paper focuses on the roles and experiences of students (aged 11‐1...

Liberal pluralism and moral/symbolic antiracism suggest very different approaches to the questions posed by racial and ethnic diversity in education. Unfortunately, neither adequately address the consequences of the decentring of the racist subject. Familiar, stable conceptions of race, class, gender and sexuality are no longer tenable in the conte...