South African Modernism (Follow-on-Funding): Decolonising English Literary Studies In and Beyond the Classroom

This follow-on project will deliver major new benefits by capitalising on, and greatly extending, the impacts of the project 'South African Modernism 1880-2020'.

Our original project establishes the foundational, pioneering, and ongoing contributions made by South African writers to global modernisms. This research is now generating unforeseen educational, social and cultural benefits for 16-18-year-old learners and their teachers by supporting changed content and methods of teaching of the English Literature A-Level at 15 Further Education (FE) providers in the UK.

Through our proposed programme of activities we aim to embed research-led and decolonising content, delivery and support into English Literature education. We focus on two sectors: education (primarily 16-18-year-old learners and their teachers), and public audiences interested in cultural heritage and global literatures.

The primary aim of the project is to (co-)create a world-class and freely available online educational resource about South African literature, hosted on a bespoke platform. This will have two distinct streams: a) expert-led audio, video and written content, including studio-recorded lectures delivered by academics and writers, video lessons, downloadable classroom resources, quizzes and other interactive activities; and b) co-produced content with international 16-18-year-old learners, including AI animations, podcasts, videos, online galleries, visual texts, blog posts, etc.

To achieve this, we will:

Establish focus groups with UK-based teachers, examination board members and educational partnerships meeting at four key points across the year to ensure project coherence, continued participation, collective action and reflexive monitoring of the creation, relevance and use of the online project resources.

Deliver (minimum) 100 hours of collaborative content-producing engagement activities to 16-18-year-old learners and teachers across the UK, Sweden, Australia and South Africa, with direct delivery to over 700 participants.

Develop a targeted social media strategy by posting expert-led and user-generated content to YouTube Shorts and TikTok, reaching audiences in the hundreds of thousands to drive traffic to the main website.

Host four public events in the UK, Sweden, Australia and South Africa, including creative workshops, public lectures, and multi-media exhibitions of student content.

Produce additional outputs including a co-edited essay collection by Munslow Ong and Van der Vlies entitled South African Modernisms (in progress); blog posts; public talks and media engagement. We anticipate that our programme of activities and bespoke platform of educational resources will:

Advance and aid the diversification and decolonisation of English Literature teaching and content in the UK and further afield by introducing new topics, texts and pedagogies into classroom settings.

Generate meaningful educational, cultural and social benefits for 16-18-year-old learners (e.g. through improved sense of belonging, motivation, skills, achievements in relevant assessment components, educational prospects and career goals).

Increase public awareness and interest in South African cultural production via events, online resources, research outputs, public talks and media engagements.

We will track the impacts of the project through feedback from the focus group and exam boards, participant evaluation forms, teacher testimonials, student 'postcards to my future self', online feedback forms, and statistical information and comments on the website and social media platforms.