From this perspective some have argued in favour of institutional pluralism, that is, in favour of a plurality of schools within which minorities of all kinds can operate their own schools in order to maintain some degree of cultural identity and continuity.
As can be seen in both contexts, however, the achievement of this goal is problematic and some have argued that it is, in fact, not achievable. In other words, the intention was that each school should reflect the pluralism of the wider society. However, the preferred approach in both places was to adopt a version of pluralism which sought variation within schools rather than between them. Broadly speaking the shift was towards a pluralist education approach in that it recognised the need to deal with the actual plural nature of society. Thus, one of the consequences of this critique was to shift educational policy in the US and Britain away from a homogenising role towards one where schools attempted to reflect diverse interests and identities within their respective societies. Indeed, one of the critiques of the traditional assimilationist approaches had been precisely because they had refused to give due regard to the actual diversity that existed within society.
The previous chapters focused on countries where education had been used as a means of integrating societies.
