Reading towards intercultural understanding: Three ways for English teachers

Otis Dhanji
August 28, 2026

In a previous blog post titled More Than Mirrors: Using Stories to Explore Identity we discussed the power of stories for understanding the self, others and where they fall in relation to one another.

Balancing these three processes is an important responsibility for English teachers. Students should feel seen and represented but should also read stories from backgrounds that differ to their own. In this way they can build a greater understanding of who they are, what it’s like to be someone else, and what, between these two experiences, is shared within the broader human experience.

Studying English is often credited with outcomes like critical thinking and empathy. It is little regarded as a catalyst for intercultural understanding.

Nevertheless, consider the following statement on the educational power of a book such as Beloved by Toni Morrison.

The statement was made against a push to ban the book from school libraries in the U.S.

So, what role can English teachers play in actively facilitating Intercultural Understanding in their classrooms?

1. Choose texts that broaden whose stories are heard

Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivers a powerful anecdote to illuminate the connection between representation and belonging in her TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story”. Understood thus, English teachers may be facilitating or limiting student belonging in the process of selecting what texts to study.

Here are some reading lists for teachers looking to diversify their curriculum:

From The Healing Foundation, comes this list of all the books referenced in the Stolen Generation Resource Kit for teachers and students.

From Penguin, comes ‘Lit in Colour‘ which aims to help teachers select and use more books by authors of colour. Contains multiple books lists.

From AdLit, comes multiple book lists for adolescents. Themed lists include diverse authors and fictional characters.

From The Anti-Racist Educator, comes a book list to help teachers reflect on their personal anti-racism journey.

2. Teach texts with culture and context in mind

English departments are diversifying their curricula. The actual “doing” of English – literary analysis – is now tasked with going beyond aesthetics and into history, context and culture. At times, teachers face challenges teaching texts with ties to cultures that differ from their own, being looked to as authorities on political correctness, or moderating classroom discussions on racism inside and outside of literature.

Here are some tips for teaching English in a culturally-responsive way:

It is both powerful and valuable for a teacher to say they are without an answer. Oftentimes, as Luis Gonzalez points out in 4 Tips for Dealing With the Challenges of Teaching Diverse Texts, the students are quick to make suggestions and put forth their own ideas. Like in most subjects, students can be afraid to get something wrong, but when a teacher cedes authority over a question there are lower stakes for speaking up.

Luis Gonzalez further advises against assuming that students from the same cultural background are “experts” on the subject of their culture.

Looking at how a non-Western text positions itself relative to the Western canon – challenging, subverting, playing with or developing new literary traditions – is vital for broadening what students recognise as literature.

You do not need to shelter students from discussions around the politics of storytelling or pretend that Western literature has always been welcoming of other literary traditions. It is better to be truthful about how the world has been, how it is now, and where it can go (as the students are the ones who can take it there!).

3. Don't avoid difficult texts — teach their complexity

A text that is all but directly endorsed by the Australian Curriculum but which can challenge English teachers is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. While its main purpose in the curriculum is to broach the topic of racism, in the 21st century, its cause feels both critical and exemplative of racism.

As a high school English tutor, I have spent a good deal of time talking over this book with students.

So, what should you do with TKAM? Or any text posing similar challenges?

Find an alternative: The Anti-Racist Educator suggests the play A Raisin in the Sun by African-American writer Lorraine Hansberry as an alternative to To Kill A Mockingbird that better delivers on TKAM’s learning outcomes but which has been historically marginalised from the literary canon and hence the study of English.
Find an Australian alternative: If we hope for students to reflect on racism, why not guide them more directly to its root in Australia? Finding a text that offers a perspective on the experiences of First Nations Australians under structural racism would be another option. See The White Girl by Tony Birch as an example.
Consult modern literary criticism: This lets you uncover your own blind spots as an educator to the harmful stereotypes, dated representations or gaps in representation a text may harbour.
Add different perspectives: Comparing two texts that approach the same topic from different perspectives is a responsible teaching practice. Encouraging students to guess at how author A would respond to author B’s ideas is a great way to facilitate learning in a depersonalised way that is low-stakes and safe for students.
Address complexity: Take the opportunity to address the complexity of the world, e.g. To Kill A Mockingbird is both an example and a critic of aspects of institutionalised racism. While its surface aim is to heroicise anti-racism in the American south, in its execution it falls on plot devices which are themselves examples of structural racism in narrative storytelling (e.g. Atticus Finch as a white saviour).
Use structured resources: Together for Humanity uses an activity called the Six Responses to Difference to stimulate discussion. Students are asked to choose their own response to an idea or situation: eliminate, separate, tolerate, investigate, celebrate, integrate. You will find our online learning module “Diversity Education: Classroom strategies to build students’ ICU” offers further practices for fostering Intercultural Understanding in the classroom.

Coming up: Indigenous Literacy Day

We must acknowledge that storytelling is far more expansive than the string of associations sparked by a term like “English literature”. In fact, the very country we live upon is home to one of the oldest storytelling traditions in the world.

September 2nd is Indigenous Literacy Day, and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation is inviting all Australians to participate in the exchange of First Nations languages, cultures, knowledge and stories. On their website you will find a link to register to the live stream of this year’s film, suitable for students from K-12. This would be a great opportunity for English classes to broaden their working definition of storytelling.

Alongside the film, a picture book called My Walk Through the Seasons on Ngaanyatjarra Country, by remote community authors from Warakurna, Western Australia is also available.

References

Adichie, C. N. (2009, July). The danger of a single story [Video]. TED Conferences. TED Talk

AdLit. (n.d.). Diverse Books Project. Reading Rockets.

Birch, T. (2019). The white girl. University of Queensland Press.

Gonzalez, L. (2024, April 24). 4 tips for dealing with the challenges of teaching diverse texts. Edutopia. Edutopia article

Hansberry, L. (1959). A raisin in the sun. Random House.

The Healing Foundation. (2024). Educator’s guide to the Stolen Generations Resource Kit for Teachers and Students. Educator’s guide

Indigenous Literacy Foundation. (n.d.). Indigenous Literacy Day. Retrieved August 22, 2026, from Indigenous Literacy Day website

Lee, H. (1960). To kill a mockingbird. J. B. Lippincott.

Meek, J. (2022, February 10). Why Toni Morrison books are frequent targets of book bans. Time. Time article

Morrison, T. (1987). Beloved. Alfred A. Knopf.

Penguin Random House UK. (n.d.). Lit in Colour reading lists.

The Anti-Racist Educator. (n.d.). The white literary canon: Why Mockingbird gets more protection than it deserves.

Together for Humanity. (n.d.). Diversity education: Classroom strategies to build students’ intercultural understanding [Online learning module].

Together for Humanity. (n.d.). Six responses to difference [Learning activity].

Ward, D. T., & Indigenous Literacy Foundation. (2025). My walk through the seasons on Ngaanyatjarra Country. Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

About the Author

Otis (he/him) is a recent graduate from the University of Sydney, having studied English and Mathematics. He has tutored high school students for five years and is passionate about education. As both an actor in film, TV and theatre and the guitarist of Sydney-based rock band, Brag, Otis is also a lover of the arts. He lives and works on Gadigal land in Sydney, Eora

Copyright
Metadata © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Together for Humanity (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Together for Humanity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Stage: Secondary
Curriculum: English
Topics: Intercultural understanding