Amy Saleh, Amy.Saleh@uwe.ac.uk
In 2020, the absence of Black writers from GCSE English Literature set text lists was widely acknowledged in educational reports and news outlets (Sundorph, 2020; Pearson, 2020; Weale and Bakare, 2020). UK exam boards have since changed this and a range of Black British literature can now be studied by GCSE students.
However, a Lit in Colour report (Elliott et al., 2021) revealed that:
- Despite authors of colour appearing on set text lists, the significant majority of students studied texts written by White authors in 2019
- Issues of time, money, subject knowledge and teacher confidence are barriers to teachers selecting texts by authors of colour
- Most secondary school teachers have had no training on how to talk about race
I thought: what can be done to remove some of those barriers? And so, the project was conceived.
The What, the Why and the How.
The project involves the collaboration of Black British teachers, with support from Black community leaders and young people in curating curricula, resources and CPD for teaching ‘Princess & The Hustler’ by Chinonyerem Odimba. This play is a celebration of Blackness and set in St Agnes amidst The Bristol Bus Boycott, a defining moment in Bristol’s history.
Exam boards usually publish guides to support the teaching of texts, though it is not their responsibility to create schemes of work. This is an opportunity to offer schools a unique and authentic set of resources which utilises the knowledge, perspectives, skills and lived experiences of Black British educators. Being racialised as Black does not automatically guarantee better knowledge of Black British texts, but a lack of racial diversity within English departments contributes to the idea of English being a ‘White subject’; this must be factored in when looking at the subject choices students make for A-Level or at university, and then applicants to ITE courses (ibid.).
We have created a six-week scheme of work with a set of resources to accompany lessons, including quizzes; contextual links; and exam-style questions with model responses. The CPD offer will enable teachers to develop their racial literacy and prepare for issues that may arise when facilitating ‘race talk’ (Sue, 2013) in the classroom. This will draw upon a paper titled “Black British Literature in the Secondary English Classroom” I presented at the ECRG Equity in Education conference (2023) and have submitted to the Changing English journal.
Following the launch of these materials (soon come!), small-scale research will be carried out in local secondary schools to assess the impact. Through class observations and focus groups, the student voice and experience can be centred, potentially influencing the teaching and learning of Black British literature across contexts.
Amy Saleh (amy.saleh@uwe.ac.uk)
Senior Lecturer in Initial Teacher Education
References
Elliot, V., Nelson-Addy, L., Chantiluke, R. and Courtney, M (2021) Lit in Colour: Diversity in Literature in English Schools. [online]. London: Penguin. Available from: Lit-in-Colour-research-report.pdf (penguin.co.uk).
Pearson (2020) Diversity and Inclusion in Schools [online]. London: Pearson. Available from: Diversity and inclusion in schools report (pearson.com).
Sue, D. W. (2013). Race talk: the psychology of racial dialogues. Am Psychol [online]. 68 (8), pp.663-72. [Accessed 12 July 2021].
Sundorph, Emilie (2020) Missing Pages: Increasing Racial Diversity in the Literature We Teach [online]. London: Teach First. Available from: English Curriculum Diversity Report..pdf (teachfirst.org.uk).
Weale, S. and Barake, L. (2020) Many GCSE pupils never study a book by a black author. The Guardian [online]. 30 September. Available from: Many GCSE pupils never study a book by a black author | Race in education | The Guardian [Accessed 24 July 2023].
