By Will Millard, Head of Engagement, The Centre for Education and Youth
The State of Speaking, a major report into UK oracy teaching for which I was co- author, was published on 8th November 2016. The launch event, hosted in the Cholmondeley Room in the House of Lords, celebrated oracy and its huge potential to support learning. However, a sense of trepidation hung over the event; attendees couldn’t help but anxiously check their phones for updates on the day’s other big news story: the US presidential election.
As lead author of the research, I gave a short speech outlining some of the report’s key messages. I focused in particular on oracy’s social, emotional and civic functions, its capacity to (quite literally) give people a voice, empower students, and support dialogue. That night, oracy offered a glimmer of optimism as the world appeared to be turning on its head.
The evening feels like a lifetime ago. Trump’s ascendency to and first term in office, Brexit-induced parliamentary meltdown in the UK, the Covid-19 pandemic, and anti-racism protests sparked by George Floyd’s murder, were all still ahead of us.
Since the publication of Voice 21 and The Centre for Education and Youth’s report, oracy has come on a long way. Take the expansion of the Oracy Network and founding of the Oracy APPG as just two examples (there are many others). It is clear that oracy has been gaining traction across the country. Speaking Citizens will make an ambitious and exciting addition to this.
Coronavirus and the immense strain it has placed on families and schools threatens to undermine some of the educational progress made over the last decade. However, oracy has an important role to play as we transition into the ‘new normal’, as well as in underpinning young people’s political mobilisation against climate change and racism. Opportunities to engage in discussion and dialogue will help teachers and their pupils explore and process their experiences under lockdown, and feelings about societal change and upheaval. Structured talk will help – with time – settle anxious, fractious classes.
As schools re-open, oracy will provide a way for schools to support their communities. After a time when families and communities feel isolated, conversations and talk are our greatest hope for rebuilding a sense of cohesion. This might not happen in crowded assembly halls any time soon. But that’s not to undermine the benefits of in-person, telephone and online communication.
Oracy provides frameworks through which children and young people can hone their ability to convey ideas verbally and engage in dialogue appropriately and constructively. Building such skills empowers pupils to engage with wider political, cultural and social debates. Young people’s engagement in these debates will be vital as the world gets itself back on its feet. Speaking Citizens will provide teachers with ideas and resources that will help them cultivate these skills with their classes.
Oracy won’t be plain sailing. Forms of hybrid teaching – that is, a blend of in-person and online tuition – are here for the medium, if not long-run. Accordingly how teachers use oracy will have to adapt. As anyone who has sat in zoom meetings knows all too well, some of the in-person dimensions of talk such as the non-verbal cues and body language get lost online. Turn-taking is more difficult, as is concentrating. Teachers should think as carefully about how they structure online talk even more than they might in physical lessons. Oracy Cambridge has shared ideas teachers may find helpful for teaching online.
With social distancing also likely to remain in place for some time to come, teachers won’t be able to rely on some of the techniques they’d previously taken for granted (possibly including group work). Again, Oracy Cambridge has ideas that might help.
No one knows what the next few months will hold. Since the launch of the State of Speaking, I’ve learnt that you’re on a hiding to nothing trying to second guess what might happen over the next month or two, let alone beyond. However, as lockdown eases and schools return, I believe the case for oracy is stronger than ever. During these extraordinary times, oracy continues to provide a reason for optimism through its enduring potential to improve learning and empower pupils – wherever and however that takes place.
