Results tagged “racism” from Birmingham Post - News Blog

As I've been in bed with influenza for the last couple of days, I've done nothing but watch BBC News channel or CNN - I've even missed the launch of the revamped BP on Monday.

Apart from stories of finance, the impending economic recession - or is it 'depression'? - current affairs programmes are full of news coverage about Obama and McCain.

Last week we learnt that the white working class in this country feel it's a forgotten majority - a group who feels its cultural heritage is under a threat amidst the growing immigration to this country. Now without giving credence to this perspective, I can almost understand its concern - you only have to look at the density of immigration in certain areas in this country to sense what the white working class means.

Take, for instance, an area like Sparkhill.

It's a bustling working class area within two miles east of the city centre of Birmingham. It's the Balti capital with a dense Muslim community originally from Mirpur in Pakistan that settled here during the late fifties and early sixties because employment was available in factories but, which sadly have long since disappeared. Today factory work is sparse. And in addition to contending with unemployment, the local Muslim community has a history of social problems including, lack of education and language skills which make it difficult for the older generation to interact with their white - essentially working class - neighbours.

There's no doubt that cultural diversity in education is the core component of today's curriculum planning and therefore a central consideration for senior management. It certainly seems that - together with inclusiveness and widening participation - incorporation of such lexicon has become the integral to good education.

Now that's all very well in theory but in actual practise it can be a different kettle of fish.
Recently, for instance, I tried a daring approach to creative writing - an obligatory feature on the AS English Language and Literature (Welsh Board) that assesses students' ability to write in a particular form, style and tone.

Having done similar activities a countless number of times and, frankly, a wee bit bored with the predictability of students' work and perspective, I decided to give my class the opportunity to write on any subject they wanted.