Michael Wilkie is Faculty Head of English and Communication at Calderside Academy in Blantyre. In this article Michael reflects on his experience of being part of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle’s Core Group for English and Literacy.
My Higher English class is powering through the final weeks of the course. As I write this, I am watching as they conscientiously complete a timed practice of a Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation past paper (the one lambasting our obsession with space travel, for those asking), and I cannot help but think of how far they have come, not only in the last nine months, but across their entire school career. I picture them as the eager toddlers they once were, meeting our education system, making meaning in language-rich environments of print and sound and storytelling. They play and explore their way into early primary school, where phonics takes centre stage, followed by pioneering attempts at sentence construction. As their reading fluency and comprehension grow, they engage with increasingly challenging texts, deepening their analysis and evaluation skills, until finally – now – they are here, in my classroom, tackling the texts society holds in high regard, interrogating complex arguments, and crafting their own reasoned pieces of writing. From the beginning until now, they will have experienced countless storybooks, poems, novels, plays, songs, websites, films…
It has been a fortnight since a gathering of the English and Literacy Core Group, and I keep finding myself in these moments of contemplation. This one was prompted by our group’s discussion around the intended literacy knowledge, skills, and attributes we should expect at each transition point in our system – the ‘input’ – and those we should expect when passing the baton to our colleagues at the next stage. As a subject leader for English, I reflect on our role at the final ‘output’ in the 3-18 curriculum. What do we want for our young people when they leave school? We want them to be articulate, thoughtful and equipped to navigate the workplace. We want them to engage creatively with texts, to derive enjoyment from reading and writing, to collaborate, and to participate meaningfully and responsibly in society. Yet, I also worry about them. The digital world is evolving at an alarming rate. Artificial intelligence, shifting workplace expectations, and the pervasive influence of misinformation and fake news all present challenges we couldn’t have foreseen a decade ago. I believe our task as a Core Group is to shape a curriculum that prepares young people for a future we can’t entirely predict – one that ensures they are not just competent readers and writers of any text, but discerning, adaptable, and critically engaged citizens.
Whilst our young people are already some of the most empathetic in the world – which is perhaps the most important output of their literacy learning – being a member of the Core Group has allowed me to work with others to address some of the challenges and opportunities of curriculum improvement. Collaborating with colleagues from across every sector and every geography of Scotland has allowed all of our views and perspectives to be heard, at times to be robustly challenged, but always to be respected. In five days of in-person collaborative work, and numerous online get-togethers, we have entered the contemplative, iterative ‘messy middle’ in the design process. We have been privileged with additional support from academic colleagues: Dr Navan Govender (University of Strathclyde) provided an invaluable session on critical literacies and Professor Sarah McGeown (University of Edinburgh) extrapolated the various and often competing perspectives on literacy. At times, the burden of the task ahead has weighed heavily on us all – but we are convinced that to design the right thing, we need to design the thing right.
I also have in my head the voices of colleagues from schools. I share their concerns that we need to create a Literacy and English technical framework that exemplifies the standards where necessary, declutters where possible, makes progression clear through stages and emphasises the essentials of reading and writing. These are all at the forefront of our minds as the Core Group finesses our draft Big Ideas that underpin English and Literacy. Soon, we will begin working with the larger Collaboration Group, where I look forward to being involved in the refinement and wider debate around our proposals.
I have never been prouder of our young people than during the COP26 in Glasgow. I was lucky enough to work with more than a hundred senior pupils in establishing and running the Climate Emergency Newsroom with the University of Glasgow and South Lanarkshire Council. Pupils from across the local authority’s secondary schools came together to report on this fundamentally important climate conference for primary-aged children, designing fact-files; interviewing activists, politicians and figures from industry; providing live coverage and producing content to help people to ‘Act Local’ in their pursuit of sustainable living. Working under pressure, young people demonstrated the central role of literacy in the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence – showing us firsthand the opportunities an evolved curriculum can provide.
Through it all, I keep in my mind’s eye certain young people from my own career as a teacher. We all have them. How could a Literacy and English curriculum be designed that was right for each of them? What would they need to Understand, Know or Do to be successful learners? How could I have respected the experiences they brought to school whilst widening their horizons through the texts I offered? How could they be supported to leave school as lovers of literature, to read like historians, speak like mathematicians or write like scientists? Our role isn’t just to teach students to read and write – it’s to help them become something through literacy. Whether that’s a writer, scientist, activist, nurse, or something we can’t yet imagine, the curriculum needs to provide both rigour and flexibility – a structured foundation with room for individual meaning-making. Hopefully, the refreshed English and Literacy curriculum will do just that.
If you are keen to hear and learn more about the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) you might be interested to listen to the Education Scotland Learning Conversations Podcast with Education Scotland Chief Executive, Gillian Hamilton, and Education Scotland Strategic Director, Ollie Bray, on the CIC or read this recent article from TESS Scotland – CfE review: ‘Evolving Curriculum for Excellence, not ripping it up.’ You can also visit the CIC Web Portal/ Glow Blog and from here sign up for the termly CIC News Bulletin and read the latest issue here.
