Written for presentational the 1st Annual Conference of the American Association of Behavioral and Social Scientists, Las Vegas, January 13-16, 1998.

Research into prejudice reducing educational programs conclude that teacher and school commitment is essential for program success. The relation between program and effect is assumed to be lineal. 7his leaves us with a gap in our understanding of the dynamics of teacher attitude and program interaction. Using multiple observation with panel data, I assess Birmingham Local Education teachers' attitudes to Multicultural Education, a prejudice reducing program. The evidence is that program to effect is non-lineal. In the long run, self sustaining program effects are mitigated by non-programmatic variables. 7he study provides a conceptually richer and more pragmatic basis for the planning and implementation of prejudice reducing educational innovations

1. INTRODUCTION
Following years of National debate and partisan disagreements, the city of Birmingham (England) Local Education Authority (LEA) implemented a Multicultural Anti-Racist Education program (hereafter, Multicultural Education or MED) in 1983 to deal with problems of prejudice and underachieving ethnic minority students in city schools. MED was one aspect of the LEA's wider policy commitment to the provision of Education for a Multicultural Society. The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain teachers' attitudes toward the MED program.

1.2. Background
Coard (1971) wrote a provocative essay in which he presented the argument that the British educational system deliberately caused ethnic minority children to underachieve. The evidence included environmentally deprived ethnic minority schools, documented evidence of the mistreatment of minority children in schools, teacher expectations that ethnic minority children in schools will fail, and ethnically differentiated test scores in which minority children scored the least. Most experts agreed that British schools were failing minority children. According to Wirt (1975: 35): Teachers ranged from the bigoted to the patient, but almost all lacked training, their institutions of education were prepared to do little except provide the occasional cram course in the customs of Pakistan, India ...

The Birmingham program was interventionist, designed to create whole school multicultural education policy, sensitize teachers to minority concerns, cause teachers to reexamine their own attitudes, such as those that shape their teaching and response to students, as well as assist schools in developing teaching materials for multicultural teaching, all aimed at creating a democratic educational environment, to encourage inter-ethnic harmony and reduce prejudice and racism. Birmingham LEA created a Multicultural Development Unit (MDU) of about 35 experienced teachers as part of a Multicultural Support Service to support schools and class teachers in the implementation of the Authority's policy. Schools could request MDU support to develop and implement school based policy and strategy in line with the LEA's policy. The MDU responded by placing one of its teachers in the school to act in the role of change agent, a facilitator who would work to encourage the development of sustainable multicultural anti-racist school ethos, through collaborative teaching, consultation, advising, cooperation with community organizations, assessment of school and teacher needs, organizing in-service training programs (INSET), independent teaching, and by engaging in project specific work.

The MED program incorporated two major assumptions, that teachers need to change and that they can change. One headmaster wrote (Davies, 1982), "If change is to occur on the grounds of what is educationally sound and desirable it is teachers themselves who have to change". This assumption made teachers the focus of a complex national policy debate about the adequacy of British education in a changing world, amid ideologically laden, vaguely stated policy goals, within a decentralized educational structure that made it difficult to coordinate policy and practice . Additionally, MED assumed that teachers are positive receptors and transmitters of program related knowledge. But the program introduced new demands on ill-prepared teachers who were no more or less racist and prejudiced than the society that nurtured them. Above all, ethnic minority students were concentrated in inner city schools that suffered from the combined deprivations of poor housing and environment, served by a high proportion of young, probationary, inexperienced, highly mobile nonresident teachers, who had neither precedent nor policy to guide them.

MED is consequently subject to the difficulties that impact on social policy making processes. The difficulties arise from the implicit assumption that policy, once adopted, may be implemented rationally to achieve desired goals. Thus, within the educational context, MED assumes a lineal application of policy directives by change agents, teachers, within the institutional context of the school, leading to the realization of desired goals in the form of attitude changes that may enlighten behavior and encourage tolerance in diversity, and the provision of equality of opportunity to enable individual development, and self enhancement.

One difficulty with the lineal assumption of policy enactment through implementation is the fact that in the educational context, the agents of change, teachers, are themselves products of the same complex society whose diversity of attitudes, views, and perceptions have contributed to the policy problem. The fact remains that teachers are the products of the society in question: their attitudes on race and race relations are reflective of the predominant attitudes of that society; their views are informed by the dominant historical and contemporary power relations that influence interpersonal relations within the wider society; their frames of reference are therefore shaped by their peculiar identification with, and acceptance into their respective communities; and, their activities are constrained by the institutional structures within which their views can be expressed, interpreted, and acted upon. The combination of these factors complicate policy implementation. In addition to the diversity of perceptions, the novelty of the MED program created problems of adaptation and adjustment, especially within a context of shifting national and local policies that obfuscate policy implementation. Whereas it is assumed that teachers attitudes can shape their teaching and mitigate their responses to students within multicultural requirements, little is known about teachers' attitudes toward "multicultural education" and how those attitudes are actually affected by prejudice reducing programs like the Birmingham MED.

Seng (1994) suggests that educators need to address their own cultural, gender, and class attitudes, as well as the attitudes of their students. Research into "prejudice reduction" conclude that teacher training to "develop a democratic classroom ethos", foster inter-group contacts, and the development of holistic, comprehensive strategies that are tied to the skills of the teachers are all necessary for the success of prejudice reduction programs in schools (Pate, 1995; Healy, 1991; Lynch, 1988). Largely ignored is the question of how prejudice reduction programs affect attitudes. Usually, program participants experience a brief period of prejudice reduction experiential activity. They are then asked to state how they have been affected by the program. Follow up studies are difficult because participants often disperse upon completion of the program. Therefore, the subjective statements provided by the participants are taken as a measure of program effect. What is needed is an in-depth analysis of prejudice reduction programs to provide an objective assessment of how they work and to what effect.

Troyna (1983) noted that one third of inner city head teachers admitted to ignoring the Local Education Authority's multicultural policies. During the author's work between 1986-1992, some head teachers (and even change agents) in Birmingham questioned the general usefulness of the LEA's race-related schools policy, consistent with Troyna's findings. In the national debate that ensued, some viewed MED to be "rag-bags of good intentions, bits of ideology, strips of anger, and cotton wool balls of love" (Wilby, 1988). In a 1988 appraisal of schools, the national government's Department of Education and Science (DES, 1988) concluded that most schools had yet to come to terms with multicultural education. Similarly, Verma (1989) found that 40 percent of a sample of teachers in a largely white area insisted that multicultural education was not relevant to their schools. These (and other) disagreements underscore the lack of consensus on the issue of multicultural education programs, hence the need to understand the attitudes of teachers who are central to the MED program. The Birmingham program, which began in 1983 and operated through the 1990s, affords us the unique opportunity to overcome the limitations of time and space, and enable us to explore, describe, and seek explanations for teachers' attitudes. Thus, what are Birmingham teachers attitudes to MED? Do their attitudes change as a consequence of the NED program? How do we account for the change or lack of it? This paper deals with those questions in attempt to advance our understanding of the dynamics of prejudice reducing innovations in schools.

2. MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN ACTION
Birmingham Local Education Authority's MED program was implemented under the policy of "Education for a Multicultural Society" (Birmingham Education Department, 1985). Within policy constraints the MDU of 35 teachers, one of nine subdivisions within the Birmingham Education Department's Multicultural Support Service (MSS), was charged with the role of providing broad based support to schools to implement 5 main objectives (author's emphases):
i. To encourage the recognition of the pupilsÌ cultures as an integral part of the teaching and learning situation.
ii. To encourage staff and curriculum development to further language, multi- cultural and anti-racism policies, in line with the LEA's statements, by means of INSET (in-service training), consultation, and involvement in decision making.
iii. To be flexible, to explore, to experiment, and innovate in encouragement of the multicultural ideal
iv. To identify current developments and innovations in anti-racist and multicultural education and to encourage staff discussion of the issues.
v. To work with teachers to foster and build upon home-school links in order to improve mutual understanding and reflect the needs and interests of the community and parents.

For the above purposes, an MDU teacher was a "change agent" who upon request by any of the LEA's schools, may be assigned to the school for a period of 1-3 years. The MDU teacher became a full time member of the school staff, except for Monday afternoons which were reserved for MDU-related activities that required the presence of all MDU teachers at the Bordesley Center (MDU head office). Due to the wide autonomy enjoyed by individual schools, some chose not to have any direct contact with the MDU even though they were aware that they could enjoy free MDU support if they wished. Moreover, with only 35 teachers to some 490 schools, the MDU could not afford to persuade reluctant schools to participate in the program, especially with school and teacher commitment deemed necessary for program success.

The typical MDU-school relationship began with several visits to the school by a team of MDU representatives. The purpose of these visits was to build trust and cooperation as well as to evaluate the school's readiness for the MED program. These initial contacts were also used to work on developing whole school policies on prejudice reduction. Exhaustive negotiations resulted from these meetings as the MDU made an effort to mold its style of intervention to the needs of the school in question, a multi-cultural emphasis in some schools, an anti-racist thrust in others, a combination of approaches elsewhere. During several visits to Birmingham schools to observe the MDU at work, I noticed that MDU personnel were deliberate in their efforts to assure the schools that they were not LEA spies. Only after several consultations and negotiations to the satisfaction of both parties would the MDU then proceed to assign one of its teachers to the school as a facilitator.

Upon reaching agreement, the head teacher called a general school staff meeting to make a statement of commitment and formally acknowledge the MDU. Next, the MDU teacher needed to establish credibility as an expert, a condition that was easily satisfied, because MDU teachers were recruited from a pool of excellent senior teachers who were also proven multiculturalists. The MDU teacher then proceeded to identify the particular needs of various teachers, building on a personal and professional relation with them. This was followed by collaborative planning, teaching, evaluating, and organizing small-scale group in -service courses.

In the role of change agents MDU teachers acted as advisors on appropriate teaching resources. They were instrumental in getting community members and the school staff to collaborate in developing whole school policy. They wrote no reports on their work except where requested by the head teacher. They acted as catalysts, the goal being to get the schools to initiate and maintain self-sustaining change so that the MDU teachers could move on to other schools, departments, or projects. The MDU worked in both primary and secondary schools, focusing on a common theme in the former, and on a wide range of subjects in the latter. They modified their intervention strategy to the circumstance, anti-racism in most white mono-cultural schools in the suburbs, a multi-cultural emphasis in inner city minority dominated schools.

The MDU strategy was, consequently, activity based with MDU teacher functioning as a change agent, an "enabler" (in MDU terminology). The change that is sought has two interrelated dimensions: the one is cognitive; the other is behavioral. The cognitive aspect relates to the pursuit of self awareness of own attitudes and the need for multicultural sensitivity among teachers, a dimension that Myrdal (1964) has referred to as "cognitive fact". Elsewhere, in developing the concept of "multicultural man", Adler (1977) suggested that after an intense crosscultural experience, people may be able to identify with cultures other than their own. Such people are adaptive, and may provide a basis for friendship formation among multicultural interactants, thus underscoring the importance of personal contact in developing multicultural relations. These arguments (Myrdal's and Adler's) suggest that those cognitive factors are related to behavioral interactions. If people develop a multicultural orientation, then they can act as "cultural mediators" (Klineberg, 1980), that is, they can mediate between cultures by creating opportunity for mono-cultural individuals to communicate with people of other cultures. The concept of "multicultural man" provides the rationale for the focus of MED on school teachers. However, teachers are part of the problematic situation. Also, whereas the program assumes changes that follow from intervention by change agents, theory suggests that the relations are non linear, but transactive and dynamic in nature. Thus, the question of how receptive teachers are to MED needs to be dealt with if sound interventionist programs are to prove effective within a complex, dynamic, educational context.

3. METHODOLOGY
A review of the literature underscores the need to understand teachers' attitudes toward the MED program: many teachers are prejudiced toward ethnic minority children (Gill, 1992, Gerwitz, 1991); they operate often on the basis of stereotypes, false assumptions, and self-fulfilling prophecies (Weis, 1993); they are addicted to assimilationist practices that are resistant to change (Ouseley, 1992; Bagley, 1992); their attitudes may detract from the adoption of MED programs (Figueroea, 1984); there is a need to understand teachers' attitudes and their frames of reference as prelude to successful innovation (Gerwitz, 1993), and teachersÌ commitment to MED is necessary for success (ibid).

3.1 Research Design
The basic research design to assess Birmingham LEA teachers' attitudes to the MED program is a non-experimental, non-random, time series (with panel data), multiple test study with participant observation. Symbolically, the design is represented as-. R: X 0 1 X 02 X 03 X where X represents MDU intervention in schools, and 0 represents measurements and observations of MED at work, the unit of analysis being a program category. The MDU program intervention (X) precedes measurement (0). 0 1 ... 3 involve multiple measures, triangulation of which provide a holistic indication of teachers' attitudes to MED, while 01 and 03 represent panel data. Multiple measures and triangulation increase the internal validity of the entire exercise. A comparison of the measurement scores obtained from the 0 groups provide measures of patterns of teachers' attitudes to MED. These measures are then related to contextual, nonprogram factors and participant observation data.

3.2 Research Population and Sample
The study sample was drawn from Birmingham MDU school teachers. Neither the teachers' unions nor the teachers themselves would permit research in non MDU schools for purposes of comparison. Therefore, all teachers in eight MDU schools in 1986, n = 300, were asked to complete questionnaires. 172 respondents returned responses for a rate of 70%. In 1992, panel data was obtained from 48 respondents for a rate of over 35% of the 1986 responses (160 of the 172 were actually used for the analysis). It is noted that the study sample was a convenient one: it was drawn from schools that consented, upon appeal to teachers by the researcher, to participate in the study; and it was also drawn from schools that had change agents who offered to act as research assistants. However, within those constraints the sample was representative of the Birmingham cultural environment, including teachers from four primary schools and four secondary schools, that were located both in the inner and outer city neighborhoods. Also, because teachers consented to the study, their responses were more forthcoming than would otherwise have been, given a negative context of antagonism that existed between teachers and educational authorities over education policy, pay, and working conditions at the time.

3.3 Data collection
I collected data for the study in four phases between 1986 and 1992 (see table 1). From February to June, 1986, I engaged the initial field survey, during which I distributed a questionnaire (containing 55 response items) to a sample of 300 teachers in Birmingham schools, relating to the process, techniques, activities, and practice of multicultural education. In the Spring of 1990, 1 engaged participant observation, reviewed official government documents on multicultural education, and distributed an open ended questionnaire interview of MDU change agents who had active assignments in area schools. Finally, during the Summer of 1992, 1 re-administered the initial questionnaire (less one item) to a panel sample of 60 teachers. The questionnaires were highly reliable, with coefficient measures of internal consistency that ranged from r--.74 to r--.90. The 55 item questionnaire generated data on teachers' classroom needs, information needs, out-of-school professional activity needs, need for support services, interpersonal relations, demographic information, attitudes to the MED program and MDU, and other related information. The MDU open-ended questionnaire generated data on change agent assessment of program impact and other information. Participant observation generated eye witness data to complement the survey data. Official documents provided archival data. Thus, multiple data collection techniques were used, including face-to-face interviews, paper and pen questionnaires, participant observation, and archival data for a comprehensive assessment of teachers' attitudes.

Table 1. Phases of Data Collection DA TE ACTIVTIY INSTRUMENT February--June, 1986 Initial Field Survey, n=300 Questionnaire (I 72 returned) Participant Observation Ethnography Spring, 1990 Participant Observation Ethnography Review of Official Documents Library Research Summer, 1990 Interview of Change Agents n=10 Questionnaire (10 returned) Summer, 1992 Panel Field Survey, n=60 Questionnaire (48 returned)

3.4 Data Analysis
The core of the assessment of teachers' attitudes to MED was based on the semantic differential component of the instrument, seeking to measure respondentsÌ reaction to two concepts, "MED", and "MDU', the former being the program of multicultural anti-racist education, and the latter being the multicultural development unit teachers of the multicultural support service, those change agents charged with facilitating the realization of the LEA'S policy. Respondents indicated their attitudes to each concept by placing an "xÓ on a 7-point scale between 10 bipolar adjectives that describe the concept. The mean scores of respondents choices were computed and used to plot a visual display of teachersÌ semantic differential profile (1986 and 1992), being a visual display of teachers' attitudes toward the MED program and its MDU facilitators. The two profiles (see Figures 1 and 2) can the be visually compared for differences and similarities. Subsequently, I used the "T" statistic to test the differences between the mean scores of the two groups, and to explore for differences between the mean scores of groups of teachers according to the variables of "gender", " level of school taught", and "location of schools" in order to explain patterns of similarities and differences.

Finally, non-programmatic (public policy and work environment) factors are examined in an exploration of the interaction between the MED program and politics and how that interaction affects outcomes, with ethnographic accounts to support the findings. The analysis consequently combines quantitative and qualitative methods in an attempt to provide a holistic characterization of teachers' attitudes to the program.

4. RESULTS
A triangulation of observations and analytical techniques provide us with a more complete characterization of teachers' attitudes.

4.1 What are Birmingham teachers' attitudes toward multicultural anti-racist education (MED) and its program facilitators (MDU) ?

Figure 1 presents a profile of teachers' attitudes toward the MED program. The profile compares teachers' attitude profiles for 1986 (*) and 1992 (+). According to the profile, MED was relatively clear, very relevant, informative, non threatening, dynamic, strong, clean, a hot, progressive, and interesting educational innovation with a mean score of 4.89 on a 7-point scale in 1986. By 1992, teachers' attitudes had changed with relative decline in MED as relevant, informative dynamic, and progressive. Actually, with a mean score of 4.0, MED was perceived to be weak, cool, and boring in 1992.

Figure 2 presents a profile of teachers' attitudes toward the change agents (MDU), those expert teachers who are charged with facilitating change in schools. Similar to attitudes to MED in figure 1, teachers had a more positive attitude toward the MDU in 1986 (mean = 4.7) than in 1992 (mean = 4.5). The MDU lost some of its novelty, being no longer a hot educational item, it had lost some informativeness and strength. A comparison of the two profiles indicate that overall teachers' attitudes remain

___________________________________________________________________________
Figure 1. A Profile of Teachers' Attitudes Toward "Multicultural Education" (MED). Mean Scores on a Semantic-Differential.

(-) (+) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Confusing Clear
Irrelevant Relevant
Uninformative Informative
Threatening Non-threatening
Static Dynamic
Weak Strong
Dirty Clean
Cool Hot
Backward Progressive
Boring Interesting

___________________________________________________________________________
Figure 2. A Profile of Teachers' Attitudes Toward the MDU, Mean Scores on a Semantic Differential. (-) (+) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Boring Interesting
Backward Progressive
Cool Hot
Dirty Clean
Weak Strong
Static Dynamic
Threatening Non-threatening
Un-informative Informative
Irrelevant Relevant
Confusing Clear

___________________________________________________________________________
* 1986 scores
+ 1992 scores

positive with mean scores of 4.67 (1986) and 4.57 (1992), but the 1992 score represents a ten point decline from the 1986 score, implying waning enthusiasm for both program and its facilitators . Results of T- Tests (see Table 2 ) comparing the attitudes of teachers to MED confirm the previous finding that the variance in teachers' attitudes was significantly more positive in 1986 than 1992 ( t=2.88, p<.001). The variance in teachers' attitude to the MDU in 1986 and 1992 was found to be statistically non-significant. On the other hand, primary school teachers had a more positive attitude than did secondary school teachers to the MDU ( significant at t=2.94, p<.Ol)

_________________________________________________________________________
Table 2: "T" test comparison of the attitudes of teachers to the "Multicultural Development Unit" (MDU) and "Multicultural Education". 1986 and 1992 1986 1992 Variable Mean SD Mean SD t-value MDU 4.82 1.02 4.44 1.22 1.52 Multicultural Ed. 5.16 .93 4.51 1.20 2.88**

___________________________________________________________________________
* p<.05
** p<.01
***p<.001

4.2 Do teachers' attitudes undergo changes as a consequence of the MED program? The basic argument is that if teachers experience attitude changes as a consequence of exposure to the MED program, then those changes may result in behavior modification as well. Findings from the open-ended questionnaire administered to members of the MDU identified positive teacher attitude changes that included:
I. More teachersÌ "willingness to explore culture in teaching and classroom practices .. promoting positive images of different members of school ".
II. Teachers "... think about the implications of what they say and attempt to resource their teaching appropriately. "
III. " Some teachers are more aware of the need to multiculturalize their lessons, " and
IV "... some more thoughtful approach to racial issues than before ".
V "...a little more thought given to issues which had in the past been taken for grantedÓ.
VI. "Some white staff are more aware... they have initiated new courses ", but overall Thus the ethos of the multicultural school did undergo some change, enabling more open discussion of racial and multicultural issues; teachers attitudes changed and they became more aware of multicultural education issues and were more sensitive toward racial issues; but overall teachers remained suspicious of the MDU; and the precise MDU role was difficult to estimate as a lack of monitoring and large turnover in MDU staff made the program difficult to assess.

4.3. How do we account for change or lack of it ? Willingness to consult with the MDU, use of multicultural, anti-racist teaching techniques and more open treatment of racial issues provide evidence of attitude change among multicultural school teachers in Birmingham.

School location, school level taught, level of school involvement with community, sex of respondent, and distance of teacher residence from school were not found to be significant in observed changes in teachersÌ attitudes.

On the other hand female teachers tended to be more positive toward the MED program than were male teachers. Female teachers also consulted more with the MDU than males. Inner- city school teachers expressed more positive attitudes and were more involved in multicultural activities than were outer city teachers . This finding is consistent with Verma's (1989) finding that 40% of a sample of teachers in a white area perceived MED to be relevant to only schools that had ethnic minority enrollment. Race was not a factor in assessing Birmingham teachersÌ attitudes, but it is noted that suburban Birmingham schools had fewer ethnic minority children than their inner-city counterparts.

The number of years taught was found to be a factor in determining teachers' attitudes to the program and its facilitators. 30% of the sample of teachers in 1992, who felt that the MDU and its facilitators had lost innovativeness and relevance, had an average of 8 years teaching experience. This finding is explainable in terms of Figueroea's (1984) argument that teachers have "theories in use" which they apply to their teaching. After years of teaching experience teachers may have developed frames of reference, styles of teaching and explanatory frameworks of student behavior that could resist change. Nevertheless, consistent for all categories examined, differences were noted between respondents' attitude scores for 1986 and 1992, indicating a relative decline in teachers level of enthusiasm and receptiveness to MED and the MDU. In seeking to explain the change in attitudes that underscore the decline, we turn to the particular epistemology of MED programming which assumes lineal allocation to innovation.

The environment of multicultural education was intellectually and politically volatile. The dynamics of the debate and the policy shifts that accompanied it did affect the implementation of MED, reflecting in the observed shifts in attitudes. For example, in 1977 at the onset of the debate on multicultural education, the DES stated that: Ours is a multi-cultural, multi-racial one and the curriculum should reflect a sympathetic understanding of the different cultures and races that now make up our society. (DES, 1977: 41) However, some denied the need for any action because:
... people in this country are not and never have been racialist, but have been driven to desperation because of idiots of politicians.. (Sunday Express, 30 June,1976). And according to then prime minister Thatcher (1987), children "...who need to be able to count and multiply are learning ant-racist math....Ó. The hostility was growing by the year so that by 1989 it was being expressed in no uncertain words:

... newcomers here are welcome. But only if they become genuine Britishers and don't stuff their alien cultures down our throats. (Daily Mail, 5 March, 1989). The lacking consensus and a permissive laissez faire approach to educational administration enabled programs like the Birmingham MED to flourish with national funding. The national, social, and political process of competing ideologies and priorities culminated in a landmark 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA) which redefined LEA-National Government Relations and shifted educational priorities away from race related innovations.

The ERA introduced a national curriculum focused around intellectual development based on English, Math, and Science, reinforced by attainment targets. Power shifted from decentralized LEA's to the national secretary of state for education (Leonard, 1989). The ERA introduced open enrollment, implying educational choice by parents among competitive schools. Local management of schools gave schools more control over their own affairs, offering schools the right to opt out of LEA and obtain funding directly from the National government. Emerging forces of European integration were causing a shift in emphasis away from intra-national ethnic minority community languages to international European languages. As a result, the ERA took the novelty out of multicultural education, which explains the discrepancy in teachers' MDU and MED profiles. The shift in emphasis implied that prime movers for change (head teachers, senior staff, and educational advisors) became preoccupied with other needs, like budgetary pressures, staffing pressures, and attainment targets. In the face of such competing demands, MED became marginalized. These factors also created a gap between LEA policy and practices. The MED program could survive and progress only if they were self-sustaining at the local government and school level. However, MDU placement in schools was temporal, usually for an average 3 years period. Therefore, between 1986 and 1992, several MDU teachers had completed their school placements and moved on. Government policy was shifting emphasis away from multicultural education, thus slowing any potential for substantial progress between 1986 and 1992 . The socio-politico-economic climate that had indirectly been permissive of LEA social equity policies had changed during the period under study and, with it, the attitudes and perceptions of program participants changed. Therefore, the assumption of lineal allocation to policy fails to deal with the potential influences of non-programmatic variables that can mitigate program outcomes.

The 1988 ERA also redefined LEA authority. According to information obtained in conversation with the Director of Birmingham's MCSS (June, 1992), the Act de-emphasized the anti-racist education thrust. Section 11 funds from the national government paid about 75% of MED program costs. The ERA changed how the funds were used, by targeting those funds to 9 projects with language provision (English as a second language, or E2L) as central to MED, resulting in a reduction in the independence of MDU operations.

Birmingham LEA lost about $2.5 million, implying a curtailment of the LEA's supervision of schools and consequent teacher autonomy to opt out of LEA race-related directives. Privatization of Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI), school inspectors who often criticized schools for poor practices and drew up elaborate programs for schools to follow, effectively freed the schools from having to tow any local government line. Many schools in Birmingham became grant maintained in 1991-1992, abandoning the LEA's authority and by implication the multicultural advocacy.

These non-programatic factors offer some insight into why teachersÌ attitudes in 1992, as indicative of their overall attitude to MED, appear to have declined from 1986 levels. The 1988 ERA re-introduced and legitimized the view that multicultural education is relevant to ethnic minority pupils, rather than to all schools, a resurrection of the tension among conservative elements in schools, proponents of the laissez faire ideal, and liberal minded activists, resulting in equilibrium at 1986 levels. From the dimension of organizational dynamics, the ERA was synonymous' with privatization of education. Schools were to be treated as economic organizations, public services that needed to compete for resources, with their grants tied to outputs. To attain nationally prescribed targets, schools needed to mold curricula processes and strategy to core areas of the national curriculum and, though teachers enjoyed considerable autonomy, their control over the educational process was limited (Ashton and Webb, 1987), resulting in an acceptance of the status quo, an inherent conservatism that discourages innovation.

Teachers may revert to their "racial frames of reference" (Figueroea, 1984), their Ïpracticality" ethic (Doyle and Ponder, 1977), and their "recipe Knowledge" (Esland, 1977), all of which are resistors to change. Those who were of the attitude that multicultural education and the MDU were unnecessary and irrelevant (Verma, 1989), or too disruptive (Bagley, 1992), could openly resist change with little fear of sanction.

On the other hand, schools, their governing bodies, and parents that remained committed to change could continue the MED program with some considerable danger of inadequate finances, as they must juggle finances to be able to maintain commitment to the national curriculum, as well as remain competitive in a market place of school choice.

5. CONCLUSION
This study has sought to assess Birmingham Local Education Authority teachers' attitudes toward a Multicultural Education program. The program was designed to address the cognitive and behavioral causes of gross underachievement among the city's ethnic minority student population. Thus, the program was intended to reduce prejudice in schools, sensitize teachers to multicultural issues, and cause them to reexamine their own attitudes toward racial issues, all aimed at creating a democratic educational environment for the nurturing of children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures.

The rationale for the study is rooted in the proposition that there is a need to understand the nature of teachers' predisposition to prejudice reduction programs in schools (like the Birmingham program) in order to anticipate the implications of teachers attitudes as mediators of cultures for program design and implementation. Whereas it is assumed that teachers need to change, the change that is sought is not clearly understood. An implicit assumption of the Birmingham program (also common to similar prejudice reduction programs) is that participants (teachers) are positive receptors and transmitters of program related knowledge. But Multicultural Education programming is non-lineal. Teachers, on the contrary, are not passive but active processors and transmitters of knowledge. As a consequence, a complex array of issues impact upon the program that are external to the immediate program environment. Those issues mitigate program implementation and outcomes. This study has shed some light on those issues.

In the short term, the Birmingham program did affect teachers' attitudes by positively predisposing them toward multicultural education practices. All the schools studied had developed multicultural policies in line with the Authority's policy statements. Teachers expressed more cultural sensitivity toward ethnic minority students during the program than they had shown previously. They also utilized more culturally diverse curricula in their teaching than previously. Home-school relations, which had been poor overall, improved after program inception in 1983. However, the changes were not universal. Home-school contacts were individualistic and uncoordinated, even though 46.9 percent (1986) and 40.2 percent (1992) of the samples credited the MDU with assisting them in forging home-school contacts. Female teachers were more positively predisposed toward the program and its facilitators than male teachers. The more experienced teachers in the sample, those who had been teachers for 8 years (or more) tended not to consult with the program facilitators, nor get involved with multi-cultural activities, citing a lack of relevance to their work or little time for involvement. Primary school teachers tended to be more enthusiastic toward the program than were secondary school teachers.

Over the long term (1986-1992) self-sustaining multiculturalism became dependent on factors beyond program parameters. Lacking a national advocacy constituency, shifting national educational policies and emphases, and a re-definition of local authority and national power relations shifted attention away from multicultural education, enabling teacher variables, like their theories in use, and their sense of autonomy in classrooms to dampen enthusiasm and result in a decline in those attitudes that had been supportive of the program.

In conclusion, Multicultural Education, and by implication, prejudice reduction programs are non-lineal. There is a need to understand the complex mix of variables and factors that mitigate the outcomes of prejudice reduction programs. The Birmingham program excluded detailed record keeping by facilitators because of the sensitive nature of the issues (prejudice and racism) raised by the program. For example, many teachers in the study resented the implication that "teachers are racist", which they perceived as the basis for the program. Thus, the popular sentiment was that the program and its facilitators created disharmony. Needless to say, the lack of monitoring renders the MDU role difficult to assess with precision. Ultimately, the preponderance of the evidence from the findings suggest that the MDU function is an indirect one, involving the raising of teachers awareness to hitherto ignored issues, the broadening of teachers horizons, and causing them to re-examine their recipe knowledge. One significant finding is that the Birmingham program facilitators did not need to do more than to remain present in schools, where they served as a constant reminder of the need for cultural sensitivity, innovation, and change among school staff and teachers. This constant reminder was de-emphasized by the 1988 Education Reform Act. The Birmingham program did modify teachers' attitudes and make them more tolerant and sensitive to diversity issues. However there is a need for careful program planning and implementation, assisted by unswerving organizational support in order to be successful in forging self-sustaining, prejudice free, multiculturally supportive educational provision for all children.

REFERENCES

*See Yamba, M. Multicultural Education in Birmingham, England: an Evaluation (University of Pittsburgh, Ph.D. Dissertation, 1995) for a complete report of the study reported here.

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