Pride and Prejudice and Pedagogy: Preliminary Results from an In-Progress Study of Jane Austen at GCSE English

From her visage on the ten pound note to the steady stream of new adaptations of her novels, Jane Austen remains one of Britain’s most enduring writers. However, few students at GCSE English study Pride and Prejudice, one of the nineteenth century novel options across all of the exam board syllabi. Penguin and Runnymede Trust’s 2021 Lit in Colour report determined that at most only 7% of students at GCSE English study a book by a woman. Another report by End Sexism in Schools in 2022 found that only 2% of GCSE pupils studied a whole text by a female writer.

My doctoral research explores the teaching of Pride and Prejudice in two GCSE English classes. A case study that fuses empirical methods of qualitative research with reception theory from literary studies, my project uses the teaching of Austen’s classic novel to analyse how knowledge functions in a literature class and the kinds of knowledge students need to comprehend and interpret complex literary texts. My work seeks a refreshed theory of interpretative reading that addresses the challenges students face in reading a novel over 200 years old with implications for how teachers can help make classic texts accessible to students.

This paper will concentrate on the introductory lesson in one of my cases. I will demonstrate how I use close reading as well as literary theory (including transtextuality) and concepts (such as textual repertoire) to analyse classroom data. I will examine how the teacher chooses to introduce the study of Pride and Prejudice, the kinds of knowledge that are foregrounded in the lesson, and the way students operationalize knowledge in discussion. I will conclude with reflections on the characteristics pedagogies of literary study and dynamic nature of knowledge in the literature classroom.

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