Should Schools Be Colorblind?

This is a qualitative piece of research focused on the experiences of African Caribbean education practitioners/grassroots organisations in applying to open free schools in London during the period 2010-2014. Although free schools were launched under the auspices of engaging local communities in delivering educational services, the evidence suggests that the free school landscape is dominated by already established, powerful organisations. Using a Critical Race Theory framework, the research interrogates how race and racism operate in the free school application and approval process which is largely concealed from the public. This thesis argues that in spite of the colourblind discourse surrounding free schools, both overt and covert racism are factors in the how free school applications are being assessed by the government. The research challenges the exclusion of many black grassroots practitioners/organisations from opening free schools by identifying several assets they possess which make them well placed to deliver educational services.

Debates about whether it is best to be color conscious or colorblind persist in the United States. These juxtaposed ideological positions lie at the heart of current discussions within many social institutions. In Should schools be colorblind?, Laurie Cooper Stoll provides a very accessible and richly multilayered assessment of how these rationales play out in select American K-12 schools. Her resounding “no” to the question posed in the title of the book will not be a surprise to anyone who reads it. The book is divided into a preface, three chapters, and a postscript. The author begins by introducing readers to key concepts such as the difference between interpersonal discrimination and institutional discrimination or distinctions between colorblindness as an identity and as an ideology. When elaborating on the ideology of colorblind racism, Stoll borrows from the influential work of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva who suggests that racism has evolved from the...