Diversifying texts in English

This session will introduce and demonstrate up-to-date resources for diversifying the texts you teach in the classroom or recommend to readers, of various ages and stages. Our Diverse Literature in Schools project pulled wide-ranging resources from race alliances, teaching organisations, publishers, and booksellers into one snappy booklet, in consultation with English subject advisors at GwE (the regional school improvement service for North Wales). Our focus is on diversity in terms of authors’ and characters’ race and ethnicity, but the skills and knowledge this session develops are transferable to broadening representation generally. We’ll show you how to get the most out of browsing and searching available resources. We look forward to your questions and feedback.

Browsing the booklet before the session will mean you can bring your experiences with and questions about it to the session, to ask us then. You can find the PDF online here: Finding Diverse Texts.

This event is for anyone interested in diversifying the children’s and YA literature they teach, recommend for independent reading, stock on the shelves, or read themselves. Teachers, Heads of English, librarians, and parents will likely find it useful.

Our speakers

Dr Sarah Olive is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Aston University and Senior Honorary Research Fellow in Education at Bangor University. She is the Founding Editor of the British Shakespeare Association’s free, online magazine for teachers, . She works at the intersections of Shakespeare, YA literature and education.

Host or Publisher The English Association