It is debatable that AQA, Edexcel and OCR are stuck in the past regarding their choice of set texts given to students. Whether they should be changed to texts which are perhaps more broad and diverse texts is disputable and explored with Mr. Higham, an English teacher at The Holy Cross School.
At present, the representation among the GCSE English texts is severely limited as 79% of AQA set texts are written by men, 21% by women and a dwindling 8% by ethnic minorities ,which is evidence that ‘we have this narrow view’ and ‘a presentation of British history that is very one sided’ as Mr. Higham said when addressing the disproportionality among these set texts. However, a complete revolution in texts is unnecessary as the ‘classics’ still hold important values which should still be taught as ‘any work of literature that is considered in some way important holds value even if that value can be disputed’ says Mr. Higham which is an incredibly valid view and also adds that a ‘combination of older and modern texts’ or ‘a split is interesting’. As a force of education, it is critical that students are given the opportunity to absorb a wide range of texts reflecting the perspectives of authors from all different backgrounds to therefore acquire a holistic view of the world.
The prestige surrounding the older texts needs to be ‘deconstructed’ before the change and refresh of the english curriculum as they are ‘held to high’, their ‘attitudes, beliefs and perspectives are no longer relevant, controversial or outdated’ and ‘they come from too limited of a perspective’ according to Mr. Higham. This imprints a heavily Eurocentric perspective on students from the literature which aligns itself with British Nationalism, Mr.Higham says that this idea of nationalism being presented in the curriculum as ‘ludicrous’ and further stated that ‘Dominance of western ideas could be problematic’; this leads to the idea of European ideas presenting themselves as elite in comparison to other cultures due to the prestige surrounding them.
In the wide world of literature, there’s a plethora of other novels which could enhance the learning experience of students across the country. Mr.Higham names a few like ‘Girl, woman, other by Bernadine Everisto which tells the stories of Black, British women and also the most recent winner of the booker prize Shuggie Bain by Douglas Bain detailing his struggle in 1980’s Glasgow. A new take on literature could be essential in our modern world and allow for a rebirth of knowledge, opinion and culture.
