Multicultural education emerged as a curriculum and pedagogical movement in the late 1960s but it has yet to be clearly understood. Several distinct approaches to multicultural education constitute a range of curricular, pedagogical, and social justice perspectives each with significantly different political, social, and economic goals. A healthy discourse between theorist and practioner is necessary for the continued growth of the field. Anti-racist education is a parallel approach that focuses on the issues of social justice and inequality. Anti-racist theorists argue that multicultural approaches to schooling have focused on the curriculum and the classroom at the expense of examining the wider social, political, and economic influences on inequality and racism, and that multiculturalists misunderstand the causes of social inequality when they understand it exclusively in terms of culture. At present, however, there is a very limited amount of research available on functioning multicultural programs and their outcomes. It is clear that multicultural education and anti-racist education are firmly connected in their commitment to work for reform, equity, and justice. It is time for multiculturalists to respond to the concerns of anti-racist educators. An alliance between both groups is essential to the continuing growth of the field. (KM)