POSTMODERNISM AND JAMES A. BANKS'S MULTICULTURALISM: THE LIMITS OF INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

In a fairly standard line of interpretation, several commentators suggest that the key to multiculturalism in America is to be found in its intellectual history. [...]multiculturalism is said to have been "influenced, at least indirectly, by the anthropological concept of culture. Investigating the relative influence of intellectual and political concerns in James A. Banks's account of multiculturalism permits a particularly fruitful engagement with the question. Because Banks is a thoughtful spokesman for multiculturalism, having written on almost every topic in the field, and because he is acutely aware of the importance of the intellectual framework informing his endeavor, tracing out the development of these issues in his thought is especially worthwhile.3 The trajectory of Banks's thought might indeed seem at first glance to suggest the importance of philosophical influences. [...]Banks refers explicitly to postmodernism or postmodernist writers in only a relatively small number of his writings, and only for a brief span of time, in the mid- 1990s.15 The basic insights he takes from postmodernist writers were not in fact unknown to Banks at a much earlier period and there is some important evidence to suggest that he may indeed have reservations about adopting a fully postmodernist stance. See Banks, "Teaching Black History with a Focus on Decision Making"; Banks, "Teaching Ethnic Minority Students with a Focus on Culture"; Banks, "Teaching for Ethnic Literacy"; James A. Banks, "Teaching Ethnic Studies: Key Issues and Concepts," Social Studies 66, no. 3 (1975); James A. Banks, "Evaluating the Multiethnic Components of the Social Studies," Social Education 40, no. 7 1976); James A. Banks, "Multiethnic Education Across Cultures: United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, France, and Great Britain," Social Education 42, no. 3 (1978); and James A. Banks, "Shaping the Future of Multicultural Education," Journal of Negro Education 48, no. 3 (1979).