Between January and March 2021, 8 students from Bushey Meads School joined their English teacher, Mr Carter, and Dr Ian Cushing from Brunel University London in conducting research exploring how young adult fiction might be used as a vehicle for exploring language discrimination in educational settings.

The research was funded by the UK Literacy Association and it involved our 8 students reading young adult novel Front Desk by Kelly Yang and taking part in 4 workshops about their experiences and views of language discrimination. The workshops focused on exploring how non-standardised language practises are stigmatised and the potential consequences of this.

Our 8 Bushey Meads students acted professionally and maturely throughout, contributing insightful views and comments, which will be used to benefit students around the country.

The following students took part in the workshops:

• Luxman Aravindan 8S
• Briana Ciuhureanu 8W
• Amy Fine 8B
• Joseph Gill 8B
• Lana Wurr 9S
• Emily Williams 9W
• Darius Oprea 10E
• Aman Rahman 10E

Following completion of the project, Amy said:

“I really loved participating in the project. I learnt lots about intersectionality, and how to be a better ally. The language discrimination project reading was interesting and I had a great time, I feel like it was a brilliant learning experience for me and my peers.”

If you’re interested in reading Front Desk, copies are available for loan from the LRC.

The journal article was published on 25th November in the UK Literacy Association’s academic journal, Literacy.