Equality, difference and the absent presence of 'race' in citizenship education in the UK

This paper examines the political and historical antecedents of the absent presence of 'race' in successive policies for citizenship education in contemporary Britain. It questions the possibility of embracing an emerging cosmopolitanism and politics of difference, within the limiting frame of the nation state and its overarching appeal towards common values and goals. In that schools are widely regarded as important repositories of social and moral values, the paper moves to consider how policy tensions can be productively employed by teachers to produce a re-articulation of equality and difference in order to enhance education, citizenship and social justice.