PARTNERSHIP, COMMUNITY AND LIFELONG LEARNING
Leeds, I studied Politics, and learned how New Labour used language to create a ‘third way’ via their shift in discourse; my dissertation focused on the ‘ethical dimension’ that their rhetoric claimed to have brought to British foreign policy. Years later, I found myself completing both my PGCE in English and MA in English in Education at King’s College London; the latter course included an assessed assignment on the 2010-15 coalition government’s ‘vision of English’. After that I was pretty certain that I was done. I was wrong. When I joined Dulwich College in 2013, the boys’ palpable interest in all things political soon became very apparent to me, and within two years my interest had been re-ignited by their enthusiasm. In November 2016, after lots of thinking and research, I found myself in my now supervisor’s office, fleshing out what is currently my project. Before too long, we crystallized my thoughts and I knew the specifics of what I would like to research: I wanted to gain access to GCSE and A-level classrooms in schools of varying types around the United Kingdom to investigate how politics is present in English lessons. In the time since my proposal was approved, the College – and many of its politically interested students – have already played a major role in providing me with some initial findings. In the Michaelmas term Upper School boys attended two Symposium talks (the theme last year was Uncertainty) in which I explored their feelings regarding the presence of politics in English classrooms here at Dulwich. Middle School boys also gave their thoughts at a lunchtime session during Dulwich Political week in November. In January the staff played their part as well; I gave a presentation detailing the project at an after-school CPD session, and colleagues from departments across the College explained how politics emerges in their lessons and speculated on what I might find in the coming five years. Later this term, it is my intention to run a research pilot in which the Year 12 English Literature A-level students are surveyed, their teachers questioned, and their lessons observed. Politically speaking, the world is going through an incredibly interesting period at present: Britain is in its post- Brexit era of divisive uncertainty, Trump is in the White House, and the Internet is affecting political processes in ways that many of us are only now beginning to understand. At the same time, Dulwich and its pupils are reacting to this world in an equally fascinating way. Boys are organising their own lunchtime talks under the banners of societies such as the Equality Society and LeftSoc, and visiting political figures are giving talks in libraries and classrooms where there’s not a seat to be had. Although I am only at the beginning of a very long process, I have to admit I feel both very excited and very fortunate.
Should teachers be exposing their pupils to their political ideas?
Having attended the talk on politics in the classroom during Dulwich Political free learning week, JoeAtkinson (Year 11) reflects on the issues it raised
T he question that Mr Hawes posed to a room of seven English students and Mr Glass was one that you would probably not have asked of your own accord: how is political bias influencing the teaching of English? Only when you begin to consider the question does its significance strike you. You realise that it has been woven into the very way in which you study books like An Inspector Calls , which we read for GCSE. We heard about the experiences of Mr Hawes so far in state schools and private schools, in Northern schools and Southern schools, with each experience raising a new question. Is it necessary to show your political bias when teaching literature? Even if it isn’t, should teachers be exposing their pupils to their political ideas? Is English the right subject in which to do this? It is testament to Mr Hawes and the importance of the question he asked, that everyone in the room contributed and engaged, and the questions kept on coming. All the time we were being filmed by a Dulwich student who hoped to record what was said so that Mr Hawes could use it in his doctorate research. It is fair to say that with the rise of Donald Trump and populists across the world, the question that Mr Hawes is asking can only grow in importance. The animated conversation was indicative of this, and with Dulwich only one of the many institutions which Mr Hawes hopes to study, it will be fascinating to see what the rest of his research produces.
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