This week I decided to look at which books were taught in the education system and the cultures presented within the novels at GCSE and A Level (within the AQA exam board - the exam board that was taught at our school).
Books - AQA Exam Board
Through my research, I found that the majority of novels, (72.5%), taught in the AQA exam boards specification only included Western culture, and took no other cultures into account. In addition to this, 22.5% of books included other cultures, and 5% of the books either did not clearly specify the cultures presented or I did not manage to find.
This clearly shows that, not only do books including other cultures not get included often within the education system, but we may also be becoming more ignorant to other cultures due to this.
As well as this, if characters from other cultures were included within the novels or plays, they were often presented as peasants or servants. This is seen through plays such as 'Othello', where he is seen as using "black magic" to get Desdemona fall in love with her, as her father believes he is not good enough for her due to his race. As well as this, other books such as 'The Sign Of Four' by Arthur Conan Doyle show racial prejudice, towards minor characters like Tonga, described as a "savage, distorted creature". The majority of the time, discarding plays such as 'Romeo and Juliet', where the Italian characters were present as they were in Italy, characters from other cultures are either portrayed as antagonists or minor characters put there to serve other characters.
I believe that, within our education system, we need to integrate novels and plays with a fair representation of other cultures, to allow children to be taught more about other cultures and, in turn, learn more about the world to be less ignorant to other countries and cultures different from the Western culture we are so often presented with.
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