Multicultural learning : parent encounters with difference in a Birmingham primary school

This article analyses multicultural learning through parent encounters with difference in a Birmingham primary school. While attending to the (re)production of social difference and the problematic accounts of anxiety, hierarchy and belonging that fracture the school community, it also examines the shared parental commitments and aspirations that underpin the motivations for intercultural dialogue and learning. In so doing, it details how existing knowledges and ways of living are called into question and gradually altered through personal work, pragmatic negotiation and the development of practical competencies and calls for much greater emphasis on these small and incremental changes in future work.