Migration, increasing diversity, and dynamic community relationships, among other things, have been facilitated by twenty-first-century global communications bringing the world to our fingertips. The challenge lies in making multicultural communities thrive. The awareness of issues around diversity, racism, and cultural cohesion has heightened following the killing of George Floyd in the USA in 2020. Isabelle Mukadi, a Black Lives Matter British activist claimed in a BBC interview (2020) that it is high time to revise the National Curriculum. This is necessary for the increasing awareness among students from ethnic minority communities (referred to as global majority communities in the present study) who are interested in a Curriculum, which links to their lived experiences and identities. This is particularly relevant in areas of historically low diversity which have more recently experienced a rise in their global majority population and where inclusive growth was highlighted as a challenge.

Multicultural education might better support the inclusion of these children. It involves two essential elements: equity and cultural awareness, which entail, fulfilling the educational, social, and psychological requirements of ethnically diverse children and preparing all pupils for a multicultural society through an awareness of and a commitment to the desire for change among both the dominant majority and global majority communities. The National Curriculum today is the core of the educational enterprise with the teachers as the curriculum framers. A revised Curriculum can be the starting point in which the teachers might play a significant part. The task design is crucial where teachers can place equal importance not only on ‘how’ the task is taught but also on ‘what’ and ‘why’ it is taught as all these three are intricately interwoven. The teachers might use the Curriculum as a means to encourage difficult conversations breaking the stereotypical barriers, thus helping to form students’ conception of a multicultural Britain. This may boost a plural and hospitable dimension to national identity for the global majorities, telling the national story where they feature as important characters as well, thus creating "a common identity in which all can see themselves, and giving all a sense of belonging to each other" (Modood, 2012:216). A sense of belonging thus fostered among ethnically diverse students from global majority communities might uplift their self-esteem and help in their confidence building process.

My research aims to explore multiculturalism in South West England primary schools.

My research questions are:

• What are the experiences of practitioners, students, and parents on multiculturalism in four mainstream primary schools in England?
• How are the classroom experiences of practitioners, students, and parents shaped by the primary National Curriculum in England?

I have adopted the sociocultural theories which help to understand individuals’ cognitive development as inseparable from their social, cultural-historical context. Socio-cultural theoretical concepts emerging from the works of Lev Vygotsky (1986) as applied by Barbara Rogoff (1993) and Holland et al. (1998) were used in the present study. Rogoff’s concept of guided participation in cultural activities helped to understand students’ experiences of multiculturalism while participating in and being guided by their community’s practices through the use of particular tools (2003). The concept of figured worlds formulated by Holland et al. helped to understand the adult participants’ experiences which come from an interplay between personal meaning-making and a shared collective understanding of multiculturalism mediated by power relations with selective and variable emotional bonding and significances. I have also borrowed from Nasir and Hand (2006) who used socio-cultural theory emphasizing the local context by considering the broader issues of power, race, and social structure (im)balances which affect it and where it plays out (like within education settings).

Amidst COVID-19, following my conversation with the gatekeeper, I crafted a predominantly remotely conducted research study based on sensitive, innovative, and respectful research methods. I adopted a qualitative single holistic/collective case study (Yin, 2009) in four primary schools located in the southwestern city of Plymouth, United Kingdom. This helped to understand the prevailing trend of multiculturalism in other schools with similar demography and location. An opportunistic negotiated sampling was adopted to identify and gather rich data. Participants in each school include one Year Group (8-10 years old), the teacher, the head of Year Group, the headteacher, and parents from the global majority and dominant majority communities. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews via Zoom with the adult participants, observation of students’ classroom activities, and documentary analysis of the corridor and classroom displays. The purpose of involving children and adults is to have a co-construction of meaning as an interpretivist epistemological approach, which embraces a wide range of specific views regarding the nature of knowledge, and how it is constructed and communicated (Clarke and Moss, 2011). I have adhered to the BERA guidelines in my research (2018). Among the standard list of things, I have included a detailed COVID-19 safety protocol as a “Covid times” researcher. My research involved tricky dilemmas which called for the sensitive and ethical handling of uncomfortable conversations around multiculturalism and race equality during the data collection process. Another dilemma revolved around a prolonged negotiation period with a whole range of voices in my research. I had to negotiate carefully with the participating schools which were already stretched to limits in the ongoing pandemic. I had to ensure my adaptability to participants’ needs as their participation ability and responses could change further and abruptly motivated by the pandemic situation. My logical methodological exploration had to be rigorously instilled throughout while personally readjusting to social interactions as an academic going through tremendous emotional turmoil, which in turn seemed to contribute to my flexible and accommodating attitude. I used NVivo, Word, and Excel for data analysis and interpretation. I selected reflexive thematic analysis to flexibly explore ways in which themes can form reality in specific ways in the participants’ lived experiences with multiculturalism (Braun and Clarke, 2022). Validity, reliability, and credibility were sought at all stages of my research.

There are a few studies (Knight’s doctoral thesis, 2018). The 2013 Plymouth University project conducted by Cotton et al. did not study settled global majority communities exclusively. Until the primary education system introduces a Curriculum embracing all communities, the children from global majority communities will continue to live in an ‘invisible state’ and more so, in areas where these people are comparatively fewer. The originality lies in attempting a holistic exploration of multiculturalism, possibly for the first time applying the sociocultural theoretical framework in a peculiar demographic location. We are passing through a phase of alienation in the ongoing pandemic, the aftermath of Brexit, and the BLM movement. Although set in a local context of a southwestern British city, my research is a timely topic of study related to educational concerns. It clearly links to Europe-wide considerations of how cultural awareness can be experienced through the practice of multicultural education in educational institutions. My research may contribute to the ongoing studies supporting a multicultural curriculum, thus, having a wider appeal to a broader audience with national and international interests. My findings may also guide policymakers to identify potential areas where culturally relevant intervention programs can be directed. The presentation will focus on the research findings which hint towards three broad revelations: • Gaps in multicultural knowledge among practitioners and parents • Doubtfulness towards multiculturalism among practitioners amidst a host of intersectionality issues • A general enthusiasm towards multiculturalism among students I am hopeful that my research study may encourage educators to raise awareness about the inclusion of children from ethnic minorities which in turn, might assist in creating safe places for them in schools and society, at large.

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