Changes in Opportunity and Culture, 1986-2010 » Diversity in the Arts, Culture and Education
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B8, Key topic 5
- How music, writing, television, food, sport and carnival showed Britain's growing diversity
- Why this cultural change was significant
- How universities grew and how exam results changed, 1986-2010
- How to explain two causes of a development
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Unlock This CourseA more diverse culture
By 1986 many families whose parents or grandparents had come from the Caribbean, South Asia and elsewhere had lived in Britain for a generation or more. Their children were born here. Between 1986 and 2010 these communities did more than live alongside everyone else: they changed what Britain listened to, read, watched, ate and cheered for. This is what the spec means by the significance of diversity for the arts and culture.
Key terms:
- Culture: the music, writing, films, food, sport and traditions that a society shares.
- Mainstream: ideas and styles that are part of ordinary, popular life, not just a small group's.
- Polytechnic: a college that taught degrees and technical subjects but could not award the title of university until 1992.
Music, writing and television
🎵 Music
Bhangra, which began in Punjab, was played by British Asian bands in the 1980s. In 1993 Apache Indian, from Birmingham, had a UK top ten hit with a mix of reggae and bhangra. In 2003 Dizzee Rascal, a teenager from east London, won the Mercury Prize for his grime album Boy in da Corner.
📚 Writing
Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) was a hit novel about families in north London. Monica Ali's Brick Lane (2003) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Andrea Levy's Small Island (2004) won the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year award.
📺 Television
The Real McCoy (BBC, 1991-96) was a sketch show made by black performers. Goodness Gracious Me began on BBC radio in 1996 and came to television in 1998, joking about British Asian life.
All of these reached big audiences. That matters because, earlier in the century, black and Asian people had mostly been left out of British arts, or shown only through the eyes of others. Now they were the writers, performers and judges of their own culture.
Food, sport and carnival
Food. Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Caribbean restaurants and takeaways were found in almost every town. In April 2001 the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, called chicken tikka masala "a true British national dish". A dish invented by migrants and their children had become part of everyday British eating.
Sport. Black athletes became national stars. Linford Christie, born in Jamaica, won the Olympic 100 metres in 1992. In 1993 Paul Ince became the first black player to captain England's football team. In 2008 Lewis Hamilton became Formula One world champion. Also in 1993 the campaign now called Kick It Out began, to fight racism in football.
Carnival. The Notting Hill Carnival, which began as an indoor Caribbean celebration in 1959, had grown by this time into one of Europe's largest street festivals. Every August bank holiday weekend hundreds of thousands of people of all backgrounds came to enjoy the costumes, steel bands and sound systems.
Why was this significant?
It showed that diversity was now part of British life, not an extra. It gave young people from minority backgrounds role models and success stories. It also changed attitudes: when people shared the same music, food and sporting heroes, it was harder to treat minorities as outsiders. But it did not end racism, as the Stephen Lawrence case and the campaign against racism in football showed.
Education: more students than ever
The other big change in opportunity was in education. In 1988 the first GCSE exams replaced O levels and the CSE, so that pupils of all abilities sat one set of exams. Results then rose steadily year after year. By the 1990s girls were doing better than boys at GCSE, a clear change from earlier decades when girls had fewer chances.
Universities grew very fast:
- 1992: a new law let the polytechnics become universities. The "new universities" offered many more places.
- 1999: Prime Minister Tony Blair set a target that half of young people should go into higher education by 2010.
- Fees: students began paying tuition fees in 1998, and from 2006 universities could charge up to £3,000 a year. Some feared this would put poorer students off.
- Women: by the end of the period women were more than half of all university students.
The number of students from ethnic minority backgrounds also grew. However, young people from poorer areas were still less likely to go than those from wealthier ones. So opportunity grew, but it was not yet equal.
Change and continuity
Change: minority cultures became mainstream; far more people went to university; girls and women gained ground. Continuity: racism and class inequality remained, and a family's wealth still affected how far a young person went in education.
Common mistakes
- Listing cultural examples without saying why they were significant.
- Saying carnival began in this period. Its beginnings were earlier.
- Forgetting that education grew for some groups faster than for others.
Exam-style question
Explain TWO causes of the rapid growth in the number of university students in Britain between 1986 and 2010. [8 marks]
Remember: one cause on its own can score no more than half marks, so write two developed paragraphs.
Model answer
One cause was a change in the law in 1992. This allowed the polytechnics to become universities. Overnight Britain had many more institutions able to award degrees, and these new universities offered thousands of extra places. This led directly to growth because there were simply more places for young people to fill.
A second cause was government policy. In 1999 Tony Blair set a target that half of young people should go into higher education by 2010. The aim was to give more people the chance of a degree and to supply skilled workers for the economy. Ministers backed it by encouraging universities to expand, so student numbers kept rising. Also, GCSE results had been improving since 1988, which meant more pupils had the qualifications to apply.
What lifts this to the top level: each cause is backed by precise detail (a date and a named change or policy) and the answer explains how that cause produced the growth.
Exam tip
For "Explain two causes", start each paragraph with the cause, add a date or fact, then use a phrase like "this led to growth because..." to link it to the outcome.