Posted on March 6th, 2022

Fifteen months after it was revealed that students could end up leaving school in England without studying a single piece of literature by a Black or minority ethnic author, research has found that teachers are still crying out for more diverse texts on the English syllabus.

Asked which changes to the English syllabus they felt would most help their students, 80% of secondary school teachers, and 69% of primary school teachers, said they wanted more diverse and representative set texts. The survey of 2,270 teachers was made by Teacher Tapp for publisher Pearson.

The research follows the report last year that just 0.7% of GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour, compared with the 34.4% of school-age students in England who identify as Black, Asian or minority ethnic. The research was done by Penguin and race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust, which teamed up to form the campaign Lit in Colour to help support schools diversify the teaching of English literature.

Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/26/english-teachers-want-diverse-syllabus