This book combines history, sociology, psychology and educational policy in research on a 40-year, crucial phase of development of ethnic identity, ethnic relations and educational and social policies for children in England, from pre-school to secondary school. The authors show how nursery children of different ethnicities interact in beginning their identity journeys in a culture of both inequality, and evolving ethnic relationships and patterns of harmony, in Britains developing multicultural society. In looking at self-concept development in secondary school children through the lens of various kinds of child maltreatment, Alice Sawyerr and Christopher Bagley argue that ethnic minority children are psychological survivors, and African-Caribbean girls especially are making strong identity steps it is the poor whites who will make up the precariat, the reserve army of labour, who are left behind in structures of inequality.

List of Figures and Tables; Abbreviations and Acronyms; African and Russian Journeys: Reflections on Autoethnography; Introduction; An African Journey; Christopher Bagley: Ashkenazi Exodus Multicultural and Multifaith Journeys; Social Class, Ideology and Identity; Introduction; Concepts of Class, Ethnicity, Inequality, Gender and Exploitation; Conclusions; Critical Realism and Dialectical Critical Realism: Grounded Values and Reflexivity in Social Research; Introduction; Matthew Wilkinson: Dialectical Critical Realism and Islam; Margaret Scotford Archer; Critical Realisms Marxist Dimension; Application of Critical Realism Models in Different Fields of Research; Conclusions and Reflections on Critical Realism; Child-Centred Humanism (CCH): A Guiding Value; Introduction; The Tradition of Carl Rogers; Thomas Hill Green, 1836 To 1882; Conclusions; Appendix: The Childrens Charter of Developmental Rights; Equality and Ethnicity in England 1968 To 2008; Introduction; Political, Economic and Social Philosophies: Perspective on Evolving Ideas; Episodes in the History of Ethnicity in England, 1968 To 2008; Why Study Recent History?; Specific Episodes in Recent History; The Poverty of Education in Britain; The Multiculturalism Debate; Conclusions; Ethnicity, Gender and Identity: The Evolution and Development of Self-Esteem Research in Britain, Canada and America; Introduction; Studies of Racial Identity in Young Children Using Dolls, and Figures with Contrasted Ethnicity; Identity and Institutional Racism; Global Self-Esteem in Adolescents and Young Adults; Measuring Self-Esteem in Different Ethnic Groups: Research Past and Present; Conclusions; A Critical Realist Case Study of a Multi-Ethnic, Inner City Day Nursery: Children, Workers, Management and Bureacracy in a Matrix of Change; Introduction; The Video-Recorded Study of Childrens Interactions, and Interviews With Key Workers; Conclusions; Child Maltreatment and Mental Health: Ethnicity, Child Abuse andSelf-Esteem in English Adolescents; Introduction; The Northern Schools Study; Discussion of Results; Critical Realist Conclusions: The Absent Children; Conclusions: Unmasking the Alienation of Childhood; Introduction; Historical Review; Critical Realism: An Inclusive Adventure; Final Conclusions: An Inclusive Society?; References; Appendix A: Excluded Youth in Britain; Appendix B: Englands Sure Start Pre-School Child Care Centres: Public Policy, Progress and Political Change; About the Authors; Index.