In England, fewer than 1 per cent of GCSE students study a text written by a person of colour, and, at most, 7 per cent of GCSE students study a book written by a woman. A total of 35 per cent of students are Black, Asian, or minority ethnic, so many English teachers are calling for a more diverse curriculum to ensure these students are represented in what they learn. Here, two teachers share how they are working to diversify the curriculum.
Students need to feel seen and represented
Aaishah Rauf, an English teacher at Windsor High School and Sixth Form, says:
A study by Penguin Books and The Runneymede Trust found that teachers’ perceptions of their own lack of understanding prevents them from adding new diverse texts to the curriculum. The first step is ensuring that you, as the teacher, are well read. If you come into the classroom with a deep knowledge of a diverse range of texts, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s missing from the current curriculum.
Sitting down with lesson schemes and taking time to map out topics is an important step to ensure you’re finding the right text to illustrate a certain topic. It’s about teaching diverse writers alongside canonical writers. I make a table which lays out each topic and which texts would work best, drawing the links where I can find them.
One of the best ways to know which texts work to educate students on the world around them is to keep on top of current news stories. I encouraged class discussions on the tearing down of the Colston statue and racism in the Yorkshire County Cricket Club so students could draw links between the texts they were studying and what was going on in the world. Even if texts were written hundreds of years ago, studying their messages through a modern lens helps them stay relevant within the curriculum.
“It’s about teaching diverse writers alongside canonical writers.”
Diversifying the curriculum should be a team effort. Collaborating with other staff members and using their knowledge will help expand your resources. I’ve found that working closely with the History and R.E. departments and using their expertise on topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement has added another dimension to my English lessons.
Finally, my biggest piece of advice is to research the area in which you’re currently teaching. I work in a school which has a large Yemeni community, so I want to represent this in what I teach. I found some amazing Yemeni poets and introduced their work to my class. This encouraged the students to think about their own backgrounds, widening their knowledge and empathy.
It’s important to acknowledge the challenges that come with diversifying the curriculum. Changing a culture and a way of teaching that has stayed the same for so long is difficult. It takes time to sit with schemes of work and research potential texts, not to mention the cost of buying hundreds of new books. Despite these challenges, I think that once you’ve got students and staff on your side, and the first steps are taken to rethink how we teach English, changes can begin to happen.
If we as teachers are not open to learning and changing, are we serving and celebrating the students we teach?
Jessica Tacon, second in English at City of London Academy, says:
If we look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, students need to feel heard and respected to thrive in the place they learn. It’s important to consider the context and demographic of the school you teach in when starting to diversify the curriculum. Take the values you have as a school, and if they’re not reflected in the curriculum then it’s time to make changes.
Allowing students to have difficult conversations about subjects like race and sexuality are important in the classroom. Rather than shying away from these conversations because they’re uncomfortable, I give students a safe space to voice their opinions on topics that can be controversial. It’s about being proactive in curriculum planning, ensuring you give students the opportunity to question what they are learning and to take ownership of conversations in the classroom whilst the teacher takes a step back.
I run an open space book club after school where students can read a more diverse range of writers. It’s such an open space because they can, within reason, say whatever they want and there’s no judgement. In these sessions we can explore the texts in detail and speak about the impact they have on us.
“The burden shouldn’t be left to individual teachers to implement change.”
I’m lucky that at my school the leadership team are supportive of everything to do with diversity, but I know that in other schools investment from those in power can be hard to find. However, the burden shouldn’t be left to individual teachers to implement change; this is about systemic change, that’s how we’ll create real change.
Funding is also a huge challenge, which is why I’m in support of Penguin’s “In Colour” campaign which is working to support schools in diversifying their English curriculum. My English department has a small budget, so it’s often more realistic that we continue to use the “An Inspector Calls” books in the cupboard rather than buy new texts, which prevents us from expanding out curriculum.
To make change, we as teachers need to open ourselves up to learning, changing and developing alongside the curriculum, viewing everything we teach through an intersectional lens. Although change needs to be systemic, it starts in the classroom with uncomfortable conversations and allowing students to feel safe and heard.
Click here to watch the Tes NATE (National Association for the Teaching of English) Diversity in English webinar
For diversity teaching resources visit the Tes Resources hub here
