Beyond the tick-box: Diversity in the curriculum

LOUISA DAVIES, THE CASTLE SCHOOL, SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK Introduction Despite our best intentions, too often our efforts to make our teaching more diverse can risk becoming tokenistic. We frequently lack the time to make substantial changes to our existing curriculum, we lack clarity from policy to guide us, we lack the finance to properly resource such changes or train staff, and we often lack public and media support for making necessary changes. These combined factors can lead to short-term solutions that feel safe but lack depth, leading to a makeshift approach that can curtail the extent of change we might want to and need to make. When representation becomes separation Students notice this. In a recent sixth form class, one student, tongue in cheek, asked, ‘Why should I care about Black History Month? Where’s my Asian History Month?’ Another commented that having a special focus on Black history defeated the object: ‘Doesn’t it just single Black history out as s