Beyond the culture of exclusion: using Critical Race Theory to examine the perceptions of British ‘minority ethnic' and Eastern European ‘immigrant’ young people in English schools

In England there are minority ethnic students with past family connections to the former British Empire, as well as recent Eastern European students, economic migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. One may wish to ask, do newly emerging racial identities conceptualise race and race relations in similar ways to existing minority ethnic communities? This paper is based on ongoing research examining the perceptions and experiences of British ‘minority ethnic’ and more recently migrated Eastern European ‘immigrant’ youth. Findings from a qualitative study conducted in two Buckinghamshire secondary schools examine everyday experiences, perceptions, practices, and barriers that validate stereotypes of 30 young people (ages 12–16). The primary aims in this paper are: (1) to illustrate some articulations of both inclusion and exclusion within the English educational system, particularly in relation to the recent comparative and temporal dimensions of migration and (2) to demonstrate how critical race theory (CRT), particularly the tenet of white supremacy, can be used to examine multicultural and intercultural descriptors. CRT is applied in this paper as an interdisciplinary approach that draws from new theories of race and society. I argue that diversity in race, migration, and education requires researchers to adopt flexible critical analytical frameworks that can expose transformations of racism.