We Teach Well

(SDGs 4.1, 4.6, 4.c) (Articles 28 & 29)

Teachers who are confident in their subject knowledge are better able to engage students in their learning. And engaged students will remain in school longer.

By embracing the options that digital technology provides, we can produce high quality, subject specific, curriculum agnostic, borderless professional development options that build confidence in English and literature teachers.

While our subject is called English, often English Literature, and some understanding of Western culture and conventions is helpful, we believe that students are best taught by teachers who know and understand them and their culture. By supplying English teachers with quality, curriculum agnostic subject knowledge and literature pedagogy, they are empowered to choose what pedagogies will work in their classroom. They are then more able to support their individual students.

(SDG 4.7) (Articles 28 & 30)

While we love literature, we are aware of how the English language has been, and still is, used to undermine cultures. It frustrates us that you can still see courses in ‘English Literature’ being taught around the world, but the texts that are studied are not English. They are Indian, and Russian and South American among many others.

The internet has provided educators with opportunities that were not even imagined when we started teaching.  When researching literature most of us needed to go to the library and find works by other (usually white) academics who had worked with that author or culture.

But we don’t have to do that now.

I can only imagine how wonderful it would have been to speak to a teacher in St Petersburg about how to teach Chekhov. In the WTW World Lit Podcast – Decolonising Literature we speak to teachers in other countries about their literature. About the culture and history that lies behind the texts.