Both professionally and personally, I have always been deeply interested in ideas; in perspectives and opinions and lives and experience.
Naturally, these things play a significant role in the teaching of English. However, when delivering the GCSE English to resit students in further education (FE) at my college, we particularly look at developing a clear and detailed focus on these aspects.
Teaching English in FE requires, I would say, some significantly differing approaches to methodology and curriculum content. As part of our ways of working, the embedding of topics in which equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are integral has always seemed to come naturally through ways of differentiation as well as topic choices.
For example, concepts around race, gender and human rights have always been right there in the texts and topics we focus on. However, more EDI-adjacent themes such as environmental or social awareness, economic issues and their effects or worldviews and historical contexts all play a part in how we engage and develop the written and critical abilities of our students.
