An inclusive approach to English has been a central concern of NATE over its 60 years. Lesley Nelson-Addy discusses the work of the recently established ‘Reviewing Literature’ Working Group in promoting ethnic diversity in curriculum content and developing anti-racist pedagogies in English.
In 2020, NATE invited us – a group of educators of different racial backgrounds and at different stages in our careers – to work collaboratively to address issues related to learning and teaching about race in the English curriculum. Each of us had previously contributed to NATE’s work in this area through writing or campaigning.
The members of the group each came with particular interests. Furzeen Ahmed (now a Teaching Fellow in English Language and Literature at Aston University), had recently completed her doctoral research, exploring how students constructed their cultural identities in the English literature classroom. Jessica Tacon (Second in English at City of London Academy, Highgate Hill) is the leader of The Right Writing campaign, which had recently created a petition asking that AQA add more writers of colour to their English Literature GCSE specification. Aaishah Rauf (an English teacher at Windsor High School in the West Mildands), had become increasingly disillusioned with the narrowness of the English curriculum in her work as a teacher. Meanwhile, I, Lesley Nelson-Addy, was working on my doctoral research on the experience of Black British students studying English in the UK.
Later, in 2021, the group was also joined by Thishani Wijesinghe (now Head of English at the Royal Grammar School Guildford), and, in 2022, by Harmeet Matharu (Subject Leader for English at Bishop’s Stortford High School), both of whom had approached NATE seeking to contribute in this area.
Contributing to NATE
Our first contributions to NATE came through the special issue of Teaching English (June 2020) on ‘Decolonising the Literature Curriculum’; we have since contributed a number of articles to the magazine, individually and as a group.
In addition to writing, the group felt an urgent need to create online CPD events to address these issues, adopting the strategy of using the chat transcripts and evaluation responses from each event to inform our future resources and articles. We hosted a roundtable discussion at NATE’s online conference in February 2021 entitled ‘Diversity in the English Classroom’, which we followed up by a group contribution to Teaching English – ‘Race in the English Curriculum: The Next Steps’ – in Autumn 2021.
In the light of this work, we were invited to present at a TES event, in collaboration with Lit in Colour, in January 2022, to over 1000 English teachers. Our first in-person event was a session on ‘Diversity on the English Curriculum’ at the English: Shared Futures conference in Manchester, in July 2022.
Re-viewing Literature
Our work has focused on issues related to the re-reading of canonical literature with references to race as a theme, the introduction of new texts by authors of colour, and the development of teacher confidence when teaching about race in the classroom.
1. Reviewing the canon
Firstly, there was a need to (re)view the literature on our GCSE and A Level specifications – to take another look at the popular, often canonical, texts featured there in order both to highlight the potential for a thematic and historical lens of empire and migration on these texts and to consider whether these texts are appropriate for learning and teaching about race in English.
One example of our work in this area relates to the popular text Of Mice and Men – a text which, until recently taught at KS4, is now commonly taught in KS3. There have been a number of debates about the inclusion or exclusion of this text, an issue tackled both in my article in Teaching English (‘Of Texts and Students’, Spring 2021) and in a Q&A session with teachers during our TES session, during which I explored the various arguments around the nuances of its inclusion and the potential desirability of its exclusion. Another example is Aaaishah’s re-viewing of An Inspector Calls (in Teaching English, Autumn 2021) through which she illuminates the theme of empire and migration throughout the text and offers ways to explore this in classroom discussions and writing for assessment.
2. Diversifying text choices
The second aim of the group was to explore and promote new texts by writers of colour for inclusion in the English curriculum. One of the ways in which we have addressed this is by hosting an online CPD session entitled ‘Diversifying the Canon’, in which we explored texts written by authors of colour appropriate for primary and secondary classrooms and shared creative ways these texts could be used in the classroom alongside traditionally canonical texts. Jessica, for instance, shared her experience teaching and learning about Minty Alley in place of teaching A Christmas Carol or Of Mice and Men at KS3. Harmeet, Furzeen and I also recently contributed an article to Teaching English (‘Beyond the Poetry Anthology’, Spring 2023) on the need for more diverse poets for A Level English coursework.
3. Promoting anti-racism
Finally, we wanted to review the broader context of the anti-racist English classroom – exploring the ways in which we might develop teacher confidence in dealing with race, and the ways in which we can promote – or might inhibit – anti-racism in classrooms through pedagogy and policy. Examples of this focus in our work include Jessica’s discussion of vulnerability (in Teaching English, Autumn 2021) and Furzeen’s writing (also in Teaching English, Autumn 2021) about how to create safe spaces within the classroom so that all students feel able to share their interpretations of a text.
More examples of our work on these issues may be found in three further articles in Teaching English: Lesley’s ‘A Journey of Discovery – breaking away from the single story’ (Summer 2020), Furzeen’s ‘Something Rich to Teach Us? – empowering voices in the English Literature classroom’ (Summer 2020), and Aaishah’s ‘Reflecting Reality, Broadening Horizons – a pedagogy of diversity and belonging in the classroom’ (Summer 2021).
Looking to the future
Since January 2023, we have been working towards producing a teacher education resource that collates a series of non-fiction texts that either explore black and minority ethnic experiences, culture and representation within Britain, or present theoretical underpinnings that critically engage with the significance of diversifying English curricula or education more widely. This will be out very soon, so please look out for it and let us know how you’ve been using it through our social media: @Diversitea on X (formerly known as Twitter).
In addition, Jessica is currently working with BBC Bitesize to make sure that robust and comprehensive resources are created to accompany the texts that AQA have added to their syllabuses, whilst I continue to work on the Lit in Colour campaign to support this necessary shift in learning and teaching texts written by authors of colour in English classrooms. Furzeen, meanwhile, has joined the editorial team for a forthcoming special issue of English in Education on ‘Race, Language and (In)equality’, and Aaishah continues to regularly review new fiction for young people by Black and Asian authors in Teaching English.
As our work gains traction and our team grows, we hope to continue, collaboratively, to create ways to support English teachers on this journey to diversifying and decolonising learning, teaching and assessment in the English classroom.