An Open Letter to Gavin Williamson CBE MP, Secretary of Education, Asking for Equity in GCSE English Literature for Race and Gender.

29th June 2020

The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP
Secretary of State for Education

Re: Petition to introduce gender and race equity for GCSE English Literature

Dear Secretary of Education,

With both the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements pushing forward motions to improve the lives of those most affected by discrimination; gender and racial disparity in education is becoming an ever more publicised issue. To ensure that children in the UK are granted the opportunity to learn about their own identities as well as the identities of others, it is essential that the GCSE English Literature curriculum is updated to reflect our diverse society.

As the curriculum currently stands, it is far too easy for examination boards and schools to select only white and/or male authors. As an example, of the six examination boards only Edexcel has any representation outside of Western literature in the Modern Drama category, meaning that students taking exams with the other five have no option to read anything other than a Eurocentric author. Worse still, CCEA offers up a list of six playwrights and every last one of them is male!

Why does it matter?

A report by the Creative Industries Federation and the MOBO organisation shows that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people occupy just 11% of jobs in the UK creative sector. In London, 40% of the workforce is BAME where a third of the creative jobs are found, so to achieve representation this figure should be more like 17.8%.

Worryingly, representation in the theatre persists at a 2:1 ratio for men and women with very little sign of rapid change.

If students can’t see themselves reflected in the literature they read, how can they be expected to remain engaged in an education system that ignores their identity? How can they be inspired to enter the arts if they are consistently told that texts written by white men are superior to any other? And how are white male students able to learn about any other experience except their own?

So how do we change that?

This curriculum demands that students read mostly male white authors, and it’s time that this was changed. It is not enough to add more female and BAME authors to the reading list (though this is an important first step), as it is still within the rights of examination boards and schools themselves to make the final selection over which books their students study. We cannot continue to rely on the good will of examination boards to build a diverse curriculum, as some still refuse to do so (as already demonstrated). The Government must act now to make it impossible for any student to study three white men as their examination texts.

It’s time to develop equity in both gender and race for the GCSE English Literature curriculum by demanding updated study requirements to add two new categories:

- at least one selected text should be written by a female author
- at least one selected text should be written by a BAME author

(these texts can be the same i.e. a novel by a female BAME author would hit both criteria, thus leaving space for the other two examination texts to be Shakespeare and another of the school’s choice).

But what about the white male authors?

There has been some concern that these new stipulations would make it impossible to select a white author for the Modern Fiction and Drama category. While it is extremely ironic that there is so much concern for the white authors in this category but very little concern for the female and BAME writers in the other two, it’s understandable that some would find these new requirements a bitter pill to swallow. With this in mind, the most progressive solution would be to remove the requirement to read a Shakespeare play thus creating these three new categories:

• 19th Century Novel
• Modern Fiction
• Drama

These options would mean that Shakespeare could still be studied if schools so wish, as his plays would be available under Drama. By adding the two new stipulations to these categories, there would be the flexibility to choose male or female authors for all three headings, and BAME authors for two.

What do you mean by BAME?

The acronym BAME is being used here to succinctly describe a group of people whose literature does not currently appear on the curriculum, or appears very infrequently. There are many individuals who would identify as an ethnic minority societally, and whose language and culture have been decimated by colonialism and white supremacy. However, in the context of GCSE English Literature, many of these authors are already well established and in good numbers on the reading list (e.g. Jewish, Irish etc.) In addition, these are still Eurocentric authors and it is the non-Western nations whose voices are not being heard. With this in mind, in this instance BAME is being used to encompass any author whose ethnicity and/or race is not considered to be Western or Eurocentric. Perhaps there is a better phrase, but as this is a government petition it is preferable to use terminology that is already widely used for statistical purposes.

What do you mean by female?

Any author who identifies as female would be included here, including intersex people. This term would also encompass non-binary and transgender individuals assigned female at birth (AFAB).

What do you want from me?

Education plays a key role in tolerance and understanding, so it is essential for children to be exposed to the written word from a variety of backgrounds and identities. I’m asking that you address this petition and to join the movement to make the curriculum an equitable document.

Please follow this link to see the petition — https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/324934

In solidarity.