Feature Multidirectional narratives

MULTIDIRECTIONAL NARRATIVES

Shilpa Darbar, Head of History, and Alexandra Greenfield, Head of English, on diversifying the History and English curriculums at STAHS.

The selection of texts in English, and case studies in History, is crucial not only to engender student engagement and enjoyment of the subjects, but also in creating what Victoria Elliott defines as ‘disciplinary powerful knowledge’ (Elliott, 2021, 8): the texts, sources, and voices we choose to include in our curriculums create a culture that elevates certain values and belief systems, often at the expense of others. In their study of pupils aged 1214, Harris and Reynolds found that ‘although many students enjoy History, they fail to fully understand its value […] especially those from minority ethnic backgrounds, feel a lack of personal connection to the past, as they do not see themselves in the history they are taught’ (Harris and Reynolds, 2014, 46). Similarly, Barton and Levstik argue that identification is integral to the rationale for studying history; they illustrate that pupils need to identify with the past, at a personal, family or national level (Barton and Levstik, 2004). Yet in our experience, history in UK schools has been more about identifying with a national story of progress and achievements. Likewise, in September 2020, Teach First surveyed to what extent black literature was being incorporated into the GCSE curriculum. Their report found that ‘the biggest exam board, accounting for almost 80% of GCSE English literature entries, does not feature a single book by a Black author, and just two books by ethnic minority authors’ (Teach First, 2020, 6).

Furthermore, a 2018 report by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education found that only 4% of children’s books published in 2017 featured a BAME character and, additionally, only 1% of those characters could be considered the main character (CLPE, 2018). Such findings suggest the potential for many English curriculums, like history, to exclude or entirely ignore the experiences of those pupils studying that very curriculum.

In order to achieve, and crucially sustain, any meaningful change when creating a diverse curriculum, it is important to have a clear pathway; one that is coherent, joined up, and embedded in the culture of the department and school. It was clear to us that our curriculums were no longer reflecting the pupils in our classrooms, which was confirmed by the data acquired from our Admissions Department. Our School is an all-girls, independent secondary school with a diverse student body. We have a slightly higher than average proportion of pupils from non-white backgrounds, when compared to the Independent Schools Council’s 2019 census, which found that 33.8% of pupils who attended independent schools in the UK came from a non-white background (ISC, 2019).

The steps outlined below demonstrate how we approached a curriculum review in History and English, however the process is certainly transferable across subjects.

Step 1: Audit the current offer

Before implementing any new change, it is essential to thoroughly audit what is already in place. This not only ensures that positive elements are retained, but enables an open and hopefully honest conversation with the whole department about why we teach what we do. Having established an accurate understanding of the demographic of our pupils, we used this to ensure that our new curriculum achieved the personal connections we desired. Given that we have most freedom in curriculum design at KS3, we began by critically evaluating what topics, case studies, and texts we currently taught and what cumulative narrative was created through the teaching of those. Using Paul Washington-Miller's definition of an inclusive curriculum as one ‘which provides all students regardless of background and immutable characteristics with an equal opportunity to achieve the learning outcomes of their programme’ (Washington-Miller and Maharasingam, 2020), we questioned to what extent our KS3 curriculum achieved this. We were mindful of the potential danger of making changes as a tokenistic gesture; our route to avoid this was to create a multidirectional narrative that embedded diversity rather than ‘tacked it on’ (Teaching History, Dec 2016).

Step 2: Establish shared goals

In both departments, we knew that a clear, rational set of outcomes was essential from the outset. As such, open discussion and agreeing shared goals and a vision for the curriculum with our departments formed the bedrock of our path to change; in our departments we created lists of nonnegotiables, desirables, and absolute nots, cross-referencing this list with the findings of the audit to identify the gaps. This gave us a structure for what was needed next. We knew that we wanted to create what Bennie Kara calls a ‘culturally connected curriculum’ as ‘a far better way to promote diversity’ than just including content relating to BAME experiences ‘with no other purpose than to pay lip service to representation’ (Kara, 2021, 46-47). Therefore, we knew that a tokenistic inclusion of diversity was not only misplaced in terms of its pedagogical value, it actually had the potential to further the ‘othering’ of these narratives and by extension the pupils in our classrooms.

Figure 1: Principles in action in English

Step 3: Design alternatives

Based on these discussions, we moved to design alternative curriculum models. It was essential that the whole department in both subjects were a part of this and, as such, models were discussed and refined before reaching a consensus.

In English, we were driven by a desire to ensure that our curriculum was led by an aggregation of skills and knowledge, rather than text choice; in our minds, the texts needed to remain the vehicle rather than the driver. Our three principles when choosing a text were that: 1) they were the best placed to enable pupils to learn and practise the chosen core skill; 2) they were accessible to the class and year group; and 3) that pupils heard and saw themselves in the literature.

Figure 1 shows a simplified diagram of these principles in action for our Year 9, Term 1 unit, which teaches Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet concurrently with Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses. The objective here is that not only are pupils able to appreciate the structure of tragedy across genres, but also that Blackman’s work is placed on an equal footing with that of Shakespeare. This exemplifies the development of a multi-directional narrative in English through which pupils can appreciate the ways that texts ‘talk’ to one another, creating a tapestry of global literary heritage.

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In History, we wanted the KS3 offer to be a coherent global history across the three years and for pupils to clearly see the importance of chronology and themes over time, as well as keeping an enquiring, question-based approach. Figure 2 shows how we implement this. The guiding principle was to establish a multi-directional memory of history, using diverse examples and case studies to enrich what is taught consistently throughout the three years. For example, in our study of the medieval world we take the students on a journey of experiences and practices in Britain, Europe, and then the wider world. With the topics established, we turned to plan our assessments. We ensured that all narratives were assessed like-for-like, so that the diverse stories did not become an appendage and were given the same level of importance and gravitas throughout the year (The Black Curriculum, 2020).

Figure 2: History KS3 curriculum structure

Step 4: Implement with regular review

The success of any new change implementation requires regular and honest reviewing with all stakeholders. For us, this meant gathering feedback from both staff and pupils. Firstly, through regular meetings with staff we were able to assess whether the new structure was working practically in the classroom; the feedback was exclusively positive, largely due to the collaborative approach adopted throughout the process. Teachers were receptive to and fully engaged in the shaping of the schemes of work and specific lesson resources, which encouraged ownership of the changes.

Likewise, we invited the pupils to feed back on their experience of the content; this allowed us to check that we had truly embedded the multidirectional approach we set out to achieve. Pupil voice is invaluable as part of an ongoing review of our KS3 offers. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure personal connection to their learning, so an annual survey will allow us to gauge the extent to which this has been achieved. Pupils and parents commented on how much they were enjoying the reformed curriculum; indeed, in History, Year 7 and 8s talked with excitement about looking forward to the new diverse content in Year 9.

Conclusion

The demographic of our classrooms is likely to change and, as such, our curriculums need to be responsive to these changes. It is important that the curriculum does not become static but rather acknowledges and responds to the realities of the world in which our pupils live. This is particularly important for the subjects of History and English, which invite us, as both teachers and pupils, to question what exactly has made us who and what we are. However, the possibilities for embedding meaningful multi-directional narratives across all subjects present an exciting opportunity. Based on our experience, middle leaders should drive such change with confidence that their departments will be supportive of this need to make bold and necessary changes.

Alexandra is currently exploring the impact of diversifying the English curriculum as part of her CTeach qualification.