The power in multicultural education: examining the discourses

Since its introduction in Canada over forty years ago, institutions have adopted the Multiculturalism Policy in different ways. Drawing on Foucault’s analysis of the relationship between power and knowledge, I frame the Multiculturalism Policy and its discourses in his concept of bio-power and its mechanisms. By unpacking these discourses that have shaped multicultural education, I focus on how the practices in multicultural education might have played a role in perpetuating unequal relations of power rather than fostering equity and plurality. How does what we know shape how we constitute others and ourselves in a multicultural classroom? This study examines the relationship between knowledge and power in the dynamic of relations and explores the possibilities in our capacities to disrupt this relationship.