New online booklets help teachers discover diverse texts in Welsh and English

Mrs Gwawr Maelor, School of Education, Dr Sarah Olive, School of Education, and Aston University, and Dr Mary Davies, Aston University, have launched two online booklets aimed at teachers in and beyond Wales: ‘Diversifying Texts in Welsh’ and ‘Diversifying Texts in English’. The booklets have been developed in collaboration with GwE (the local school improvement service for North Wales) and local teachers. Dr Lowri Jones, School of Education, has also advised on the Welsh-language booklets. They are intended to help teachers – as well as parents, librarians, and booksellers – identify diverse texts and global majority authors written in, or translated into, Welsh and English. Welsh and English language versions of both booklets are freely available online. A list of ‘Ten diverse texts in Welsh by global majority authors’ is also available, in both languages, and features in Olives’ editorial introduction for the journal Jeunesse: Young People, Texts and Cultures (16.1).

The booklets have already been showcased at the BAMEed Wales Anti-Racist Education Festival at University of Wales, Trinity St David’s Carmarthen campus, in June, as well as the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) annual conference, at University of South Wales, Treforest campus, in July. One teacher of English Literature, responding anonymously, said: ‘It’s good to know my classroom practice has a solid basis in research. [The booklets show] a strong investment in classroom diversity’. Another educator said, ‘the reading for pleasure video was particularly informative’. Further feedback on the booklets from wide-ranging stakeholders is still sought. Participants in the online feedback survey can enter a prize draw to win one of ten £20 book tokens.

Each booklet includes weblinks to, and a brief overview of, existing resources for identifying diverse texts by literary and cultural organisations, teaching journals, professional associations, and related experts. In response to requests from teachers we consulted through GwE, care has been taken to convey the ease with which users can identify texts’ suitability for their children’s age group, reading level, and interests, for each resource featured. GwE are using the booklets with teachers from North Wales on their Reading for Pleasure programme.

The booklets are underpinned by the authors’ peer-reviewed article ‘Teaching Literatures in Secondary Schools in Wales’, freely and bilingually available in Wales Journal of Education (26.1). They are the latest in a series of public-facing resources published by the researchers, which have previously featured in Bulletin and are freely available online. The research was initially funded by Sarah and Gwawr’s WG CEN7 award, which highlighted the absence of global majority authors in the teaching of literatures in secondary schools in Wales, despite Welsh Government objectives articulated in policies such as Antiracist Wales and the Curriculum for Wales. The research collaboration continues with ESRC IAA funding from Aston University.