True diversity in the curriculum

Words by Jane Bednall

Backbeat

TO raise students’ achievement and help us recognise their potential and skills, we need to develop a culturally inclusive curriculum.

Muhammed taught me this. In a year 4 class, pupils were studying the Gaza scroll, a Bengali story that depicts images from Hindu and Muslim faiths.

The teacher had been concerned about Muhammed’s disengagement in class and his lack of willingness to write. But, when studying the scroll, he could relate a sophisticated vocabulary he had acquired from his Koranic study.

“This picture tells me a story about a Prophet Yunus,” he wrote.

“The English version is Jonah, whose duty it was to turn delinquent and evil people into benevolent people.”

Bringing skills to the classroom Muhammed had not turned into a sophisticated writer overnight but, because the subject was relevant to his faith, he brought literacy skills previously hidden from the teacher into the mainstream classroom.

As educationalists, we need to transform the curriculum to reflect real diversity. If equalities are to be central to school

practice, they need to be more than an add-on. Intercultural perspectives need to be developed across the curriculum – stories of communities supporting each other and resisting oppression, past and present.

Stories of hope, like the strike by the exploited and underpaid Lancashire cotton workers when they found out about the terrible conditions of the ’enslaved people’ picking cotton in the southern states of America.

Comparing cultures Intercultural comparisons worked well in Newham and Hackney schools, where one used Jason Uddin’s poem the Embroidered Quilt, a love story about marriage between a Hindu girl and Muslim boy, and compared the text with Romeo and Juliet.

In another, religious studies and science departments worked on a project that compared creation stories across faiths to scientific theories like the Big Bang.

And a science project that looked at the work of Black and Asian scientists including Al-Birini, an 11th century Muslim scholar who worked out the earth was round

and calculated its circumference, 600 years before Galileo.

Trust teachers If work on equalities is to have positive outcomes, teachers need to feel confident about their views and trusted as professionals to play an active role in forming the curriculum, rather than simply covering national requirements. And if we are to create a culturally diverse curriculum we must forge genuinely balanced partnerships between homes, communities and schools.

Members of the UK Literacy Association can download teacher training resources on the subject. Developing a Culturally Inclusive Curriculum includes seven CPD sessions, with additional suggestions for planning and classroom work, developed in partnership with Newham, Hackney and Enfield schools.

They include planning for bilingual and BAME pupils and emphasise the importance of teaching and learning strategies of critical thinking, visual literacy, enquiry-based learning with intercultural planning across the curriculum. Visit ukla.org

Fact file

Jane Bednall is an educational consultant who has taught in schools from nursery to sixth form. She has worked for Hackney and Newham Councilsin literacy and advisory capacities.