‘How Do You Feel About the Language That You Use?': Promoting Attitudinal Change Among Scots Speakers in the Classroom

Introduction

This chapter describes Participatory Action Research (PAR) in a secondary school in Scotland, United Kingdom, in which the research team (PhD student and teacher) worked alongside staff and pupils. The methodology created space and time for key moments of transformation to occur when conventional pedagogical approaches were disrupted. Each participant had the potential to be or become an agent of change, and the interaction between pupils, teachers, researcher, authors and artists, and senior management created opportunities for new ways of learning and thinking about the Scots language and its place within a formal learning environment, which in turn can both reflect and change wider societal attitudes.

This work has developed from a school-university partnership between The Elphinstone Institute, Aberdeen University and Banff Academy, both in the North-East of Scotland, where Scots is spoken by more than 50% of the people, according to 2011 census data (National Records of Scotland, 2011). The Scots Language Award qualification has only been in existence since 2014. Banff Academy, teaches Scots within the Humanities Faculty rather than English or Modern languages, and the work is characterized by an underpinning of social justice and a rights-based approach. The research project investigated curricular innovations designed to boost pupil self-esteem, and work towards minimizing the attainment gap between pupils from wealthier backgrounds compared to those from areas of multiple deprivation. The practitioners used Participatory Action Research (PAR) and creative arts to explore how pupils felt about their home language, with a view to promoting positive attitudinal change and encouraging the pupils to view the Scots language as a valuable part of both their cultural heritage and also their daily lived experience.

During one year, the researcher visited the school weekly, and used a variety of qualitative research methods including participant observation, questionnaires, ethnographic interviews, and creative arts to explore how teaching the Scots language can begin to break down linguistic and cultural barriers that have long marginalized Scots speakers in the classroom and wider community. The research questions were based on earlier research on attitudes to Scots, (Durham 2014; Macafee & McGarrity, 1999) but co-produced through discussion with the pupils and classroom teacher. This led to an iterative research process which yielded rich, nuanced materials that offered multiple perspectives on the issue of home language teaching in formal education. This research project used linguistic ethnography as a framework to look closely and look locally, while tying observations to broader relations of power and ideology (Creese, 2010). What this means is that the research team looked closely and locally at Scots language practices in the classroom and school community, in relation to national educational and language policy frameworks. Research data from interviews with senior management elucidated the impact of power and ideology on the lived realities of Scots speakers. This manifested as a sort of “doublethink” where staff talk about the importance of the Scots language as an expression of identity, whilst still preferring that pupils use “proper English” in more formal situations. Lowing (2017) described this internalized hegemony as ‘schizoglossia’ when some middle-class Scots teachers struggle to voice their Scots language, even as they purported to value it and accept it as a valid language for use in school. Based on the introductory information, this chapter has the overall objective to investigate whether learning and teaching Scots, the home language of the majority of pupils, boosted the pupils’ self-esteem and wider achievement.