Promoting tolerance to schools in a time of extremism

Tolerance is arguably both morally ambiguous and politically essential. School leaders in England have an obligation and a legal requirement: to encourage acceptance of difference and diversity, declare in public terms, that which is unacceptable and that which, though disputable, objectionable, unpopular or disliked, is part of the permitted remit of democratic plural society. In this chapter, I shall draw mainly from Forst (2013) and Brown (2006) as leading examples of those who critically engage tolerance, and as writers who have debated with each other (Blasi and Holzhey, 2014). Brown (2006) argues that tolerance is shackled by contexts in which unbalanced power relations inevitably taint its exercise but Forst suggests it is vital to a liberal and democratic system which maximizes freedom and limits prohibition wherever possible (Forst, 2013). A critical approach to promoting values in schools in England requires a nuanced understanding of both.