Books create belonging. They help us see and understand each other. Research commissioned by #Merky Books shows that young people are actively turned off from reading by the books they study at school.

That’s why it’s vital that in their formative years, young people have access to a diverse range of books. Inclusive English Literature teaching will help us raise a generation of young people who see the world in a generous and expansive way, treat each other with empathy and compassion, and instil a love of reading that lasts a lifetime.

This belief, rooted in our mission – we make books for everyone, because a book can change anyone – led us to explore ways that we could understand the obstacles to change in the education sector, and design a programme of support, resource and training that could empower teachers to make lasting structural change at a grassroots level.

Lit in Colour is an initiative that supports inclusive English Literature teaching in UK schools. It aims to shine a light on how English Literature is taught, make the case for changing the status quo, and provide solutions to make that change happen. It was established as a partnership model led by Penguin and The Runnymede Trust and convening key parties including exam boards and other publishers.

We started by commissioning and publishing a landmark report, which revealed that fewer than 1% of English Literature students at age 16 study a book by a writer of colour. We designed programmes that directly address the challenges faced by teachers by producing resources, providing training, and donating over 100,000 books just in our first year. The Lit in Colour Pioneers Programme has helped 92 schools change their set texts at GCSE, with 12,000 students benefiting from the change in its pilot year.

Delivering inclusive education only works with the involvement of teachers, which is where we’ve focused our attention. The Lit in Colour report, the first of its kind – which surveyed teachers directly – revealed a need for time, budget and resources, alongside a lack of confidence when discussing race in the classroom. Based on the report’s recommendations, we partnered with exam boards, other publishers and education trade press to establish meaningful and lasting connections with teachers, headteachers, school librarians and policy makers. We’ve created highly practical and actionable lesson plans, resources, events and publisher agnostic reading lists to support more inclusive teaching, and training that begins to create the fluency teachers need to have constructive discussions about race with their students. We are constantly speaking to participating teachers to establish the efficacy of our resources, and measure the effect of a more inclusive curriculum on student engagement.

Lit in Colour was launched in late 2020, in partnership with the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading race equality thinktank. Our first step was to better understand the issue so 2021 saw us commission and publish the groundbreaking Lit in Colour report, which received widespread coverage including Sky News, BBC News, BBC Radio News, The Times, the Guardian, Times Education Supplement, New Statesmen and Schools Week.

We also kicked off the pilot year of the Lit in Colour Pioneers programme in partnership with Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, a nationwide scheme to incentivise set text changes in schools with donations, resources, training, and online teachers’ community forums. This programme has so far seen 12,000 students experience a more inclusive education.

Additional training, events, resources, and book donations have been delivered via a dedicated teachers’ newsletter, and a media partnership with Times Education Supplement, the UK’s biggest education trade publication.