"A case-book of malign consequences": The Burnage Report and public representations of antiracism in education

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the circulation and reproductive impact of public representations of the Burnage Report, a document which loomed large in the public debates in Britain on the issue of antiracism policies in schools in the late 1980s. Emanating from an inquiry into a student's murder at Manchester's Burnage High School, the Report was held up in much of the British press as having concluded that antiracism policies were a blameworthy factor in the murder. Such conclusions were contested by the authors of the Report, who maintained that racism, not antiracism, was the primary factor in the murder. Making use of methodologies and analyses derived from the fields of Cultural Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis examines the apparent disjuncture between the Report and its representations, comparing a "preferred reading" of the Report with press readings, and analyzing the discursive sources of press representations of antiracism. Also examined are the representations of the Report in the subsequent academic production on antiracism, in order to ascertain the impact of press representations on understandings of the Report's significance.