Learning to write Scots: a school ethnography of Scots literacy development

ABSTRACT

Scots is one of three indigenous languages in Scotland, alongside English and Gaelic, spoken by 1.5 million people (National Records of Scotland 2011). Historically, Scots was excluded from formal education, but since the launch of a Scots qualification in 2014, the language is now taught in a growing number of schools.

Findings from a school-university research partnership into the use of Scots show that lack of a standardised orthography, lack of exposure to written Scots, teacher attitudes, and lack of confidence in writing Scots are factors that influence Scots literacy development.

This research was undertaken in 2018–2019, at Banff Academy in North-East Scotland, where Scots is spoken by approximately 50% of pupils. I used Participatory Action Research and Linguistic Ethnography (Creese 2010; Shaw, Copland, and Snell 2015) as a method and theoretical framework to explore attitudes towards Scots, set within a broader language policy framework. Data from ethnographic interviews with pupils, teachers and Scots language experts suggests that innovative pedagogical approaches can stimulate students to develop positive language attitudes and language awareness and that improving language attitudes can influence linguistic behaviours. These approaches to creative language teaching could be applicable in other regional or minority language contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Minority languages
• Scots
• education
• linguistic ethnography
• participatory action research

Introduction

Scots is one of three historical indigenous languages in Scotland, alongside English and Gaelic. Scots is a minority language, spoken by 1.5 million people in 2011 (National Records of Scotland 2011), which increased to 2.8 million people reporting some level of skills in Scots in 2022 (Scotland's Census 2022) . It is less visible than English, has lower status than English, and until recently, was commonly thought of as slang, bad English, or a dialect of English rather than a language in its own right (Lowing 2017; Matheson and Matheson 2000; Sebba 2018; TNS-BMRB 2009; Unger 2013). In this article, I discuss Scots in relation to English and look at contemporary efforts to teach Scots literacy, as part of a wider language revitalisation movement. The two main strands of my work cover literacy skills development, and building confidence and self-esteem in Scots speakers, to promote positive attitudinal change towards contemporary Scots.

The focus of this special issue is developing literacy in ‘regional collateral languages’ which are close to their respective national languages both structurally and with regard to identity questions (cf. Wicherkiewicz 2019). Since Scots is spoken throughout Scotland, labelling it ‘regional’ is problematic, although Scots has a number of regional dialects. Similarly, it would be extremely problematic to think of Scotland as merely a region of the United Kingdom, although it was known as ‘North Britain’ in the post-Union period (Millar 2023, 65). The Encylopedia Britannica (2024) states that ‘[a]lthough profoundly influenced by the English, Scotland has long refused to consider itself as anything other than a separate country’. However, it is true to say that the Scots language and the English language are close, both structurally and functionally, as discussed in the following section.

2. Is Scots a language?

Scots and English are closely related, West Germanic languages descended from different dialects of Old English (Macafee and Aitken 2002). They can be thought of as ‘kin-tongues’ (Kloss 1993) because they have a degree of mutual recognisability, but the borderline between the two languages is blurred (Millar 2018, 2). This situation is fluid however, and, as in many cases of regional and minority languages in Europe, such as Latgalian in Latvia (Martena, Marten, and Šuplinska 2022) or Kashubian in Poland (Schaaf and Wicherkiewicz 2004), the question of where a language ends and a dialect begins is demarcated more by political will than linguistic features. The status of Scots is currently improving due to policy development and educational reform. Scots is now recognised as a language by Moseley, Nicolas and UNESCO (2010) and the Council of Europe (1992) among others, but not necessarily by everyday speakers. Lowing (2017) describes a state of ‘schizoglossia’: an insecurity in the use of Scots, and Macafee (2000) found that ‘Scots is not well-defined in the public mind’. Until the middle of the twentieth century, most Scots speakers were diglossic (Ferguson 1959; Millar 2020, 11) using English, which had higher status, in formal situations, and Scots in the home. Currently, most Scots speakers move along a bipolar linguistic continuum (Aitken 1976) depending on the context, but the languages are no longer kept totally separate (Millar 2018, 217).

3. The status of Scots

The changing status of Scots is intertwined with historical and political developments in Scotland. To give a simplified overview: during the Older Scots Period (before 1700) Scots literature flourished (Millar 2020, 75; McClure 1997; Dictionaries of the Scots Language 2022], 27). Prior to the Union of the Crowns in 1603, Scots was the language of the court and the legal system (see Millar 2023; 2018; McClure 1997; or Murison 1977 for a discussion on the historical development of Scots). After 1603, the royal court moved to London, King James VI of Scotland/I of England started to write in Standard English rather than Scots, and members of the elite followed suit (Aitken 1985, 43; Millar 2023, 83). After the Union of Parliaments in 1707, the governance of Scotland moved to London (Millar 2023, 85), English became the dominant language in Scotland, and Scots gradually lost status (Bann and Corbett 2015). In the eighteenth century Scots poetry was written during the vernacular revival (Smith 2020). McClure comments that at this time ‘to write in Scots, […] was an act with overt and inescapable cultural, even political implications’ (McClure, 1997, 29).

In 1872, the Education (Scotland) Act was passed, making education compulsory for children aged 5-13. English became the enforced language of education, and pupils were often physically punished for speaking Scots in schools until corporal punishment was outlawed in the 1980s (Unger 2013, 130). The Scottish Education Department (1947), stated Scots ‘is not the language of “educated” people anywhere and could not be described as a suitable medium of education or culture’. In official circles, Scots ceased to exist, although it was still spoken in informal settings (Aitken 1985, 41; Millar 2018, 192).

In the early twentieth century, a group of Scottish writers, led by Hugh MacDiarmid, developed a form of literary written Scots, influenced by European modernism, that became known as ‘synthetic Scots’ (Millar 2023, 74). These writers inspired subsequent waves of language activists (Unger 2010, 101). During the 1970s ‘a seismic change in educational attitudes occurred’ (McClure 2005, 78). Thereafter, teachers were encouraged to recognise the validity of regional dialects (McClure 1974, 68). By the 1990s, interest in teaching Scots in schools had developed alongside an increasing sense of national identity (Caie 1998 iv). Following devolution, the Scottish Parliament reopened in 1999, giving Scotland greater political autonomy in several areas including education. The UK Government signed the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in 2001, leading to policy and educational developments. Education Scotland (2017) states that learning Scots can ‘support young people in developing their confidence and a sense of their own identity’. Prior to these reforms, Scots was typically only studied around St Andrew’s Day, celebrating the patron saint of Scotland, or Burns Night, when the birth of the poet Robert Burns is celebrated (Tyson 1998, 73). Now, however, there is growing awareness of the importance of Scots as a living language and an important part of Scotland’s cultural heritage and identity. Speakers of minority languages have become aware of what is at stake when languages are endangered (Dunmore 2021, 4; UNESCO 2003, 1). As a reaction against the juggernaut of globalisation, interest in local languages as symbols of culture, identity and belonging, has grown in significance (Kloss 1993, 168).

The Scots Language Award was launched by the Scottish Qualifications Authority in 2014 as a formal qualification within the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence and is taught in an increasing number of schools and community settings. Core skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening are taught, giving pupils opportunities to develop literacy and actively produce Scots. The curriculum is flexible, allowing teachers considerable autonomy (Niven 2017, 10).

In recent years, increased institutional provision from Education Scotland (2015; 2017), the Dictionaries of the Scots Language ( 2022), and the Open University and Education Scotland (2019; 2024) ensure that Scots language teachers and learners have access to a wide range of resources. A Scottish Languages Bill is currently being debated by the Scottish Government (2024). If passed, this law will give official status to Scots and increase support for Scots language education in schools.

Materials and method: local language, school and community

A collaborative school-university research partnership was developed between the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, and Banff Academy, a high school in the North-East of Scotland, during the academic year 2018–2019. Dr Jamie Fairbairn, Head of Humanities and a Scots Language teacher at Banff Academy, and I, PhD Ethnology researcher, received funding to investigate whether teaching the Scots language in school boosts pupils’ self-esteem and wider achievement (BERA British Curriculum Forum Curriculum Investigation Grant 2018–2019).

I visited the Scots Language class of twelve pupils aged 16–18, weekly for six months. I used a variety of ethnographic research methods, over three main phases of my research process. I asked similar questions during each phase, based on earlier research on attitudes toward Scots (Aye Can 2011; Durham 2014; Macafee and McGarrity 1999). First, I sat in class, ‘lurking and soaking’ (Snell and Lefstein 2012), doing participant observation and building relationships with the pupils and teacher. Phase two involved Participatory Action Research (Baum, MacDougall, and Smith 2006), where I facilitated an art workshop in partnership with Martin Ayres from the participatory arts company Caged Beastie. In phase three, I interviewed the pupils, teachers, and visiting Scots language experts. My interviews were informal, dialogic and iterative. I shared my own perspectives and included autoethnography in my data set. The pupils were trained in ethnographic research methods, and their interviews, sound recordings, and photographs were added to my raw data. I coded the data using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-step process for thematic analysis, and, for this paper, used NVIVO to extract data relating to reading, writing, literacy, early experiences with Scots, teacher attitudes and social media.

My argument is that as well as improving reading and writing skills, boosting confidence and self-esteem is also important for developing literacy in Scots. Using Participatory Action Research, a cyclical process of planning, action and reflection, with participants at the centre, yielding valuable insights from the young people themselves, whose opinions about Scots and actions to maintain Scots are a vital part of securing the future of the language.

This work is underpinned by a commitment to social justice and aims to bring meaningful change to the pupils’ relationship with Scots. Drawing on the principles of Linguistic Ethnography (Snell and Lefstein 2012, 3–4), I ‘look closely and look locally, while tying observations to broader relations of power and ideology’ (Creese 2010, 140) to make connections between classroom-based ethnography and language policy, and research the confluence between bottom-up language activism and education and top-down language policy and curricular guidelines. Working to increase literacy in Scots is one stage of reversing language shift (Fishman 1991). Creating a new generation of confident Scots speakers is an important step to maintaining intergenerational transmission.

Results: what are the factors that have hindered Scots literacy development?

I explore the answers to this question in the following section. In my interview data, I identified four major factors that hinder Scots literacy development in school. These are: lack of a standardised orthography, lack of exposure to written Scots, confidence, and teacher attitudes.

Lack of a standardised orthography

Extract 1. When you’re just speaking it, you’re not really thinking about what you’re saying.[…]. But when you’re reading it, you’re actually processing the words, like how they’re spelt.[…]. It’s definitely easier to speak it than it is to read it or write it. Because the spelling’s just, could be spelt anyway really. Everyone’s just got a different opinion on how it should be spelt.

If there was a set way, I think people would take it more seriously. (Pupil)

Pupils discussed statements such as ‘I feel confident speaking Scots’ and ‘I feel confident reading/writing Scots’. The majority of the class were Scots speakers (Fairbairn and Needler 2019), but had limited prior exposure to written Scots. Extract 1 typifies the experience of most pupils, for whom Scots was primarily an oral language, used fluently, however reading and writing required conscious effort. Millar (2018, 198) comments that ‘Scots speakers are divorced from what is written in Scots, and Scots literature is perceived as distant from the everyday reality of most people’s language use’.

Extract 2. It’s not as easy as I thought it’d be. Mainly because of spelling. Spelling Scots words for me is ridiculous because there’s no standard form. (Pupil)

Extract 3. Trying to get the kids to write in Scots, they got very uptight and panicky, ‘oh I don’t know how to spell stuff’, ‘is that how you spell that?’ […] If you don’t have that framework then it’s very difficult. (Teacher/lecturer)

After reading Scots texts, pupils discussed the lack of a standard Scots orthography. But does Scots need a standardised orthography? A written standard would allow teaching resources to be used throughout Scotland (Bann and Corbett 2015, 144). Standardisation might make Scots easier to learn (extract 2) or reduce linguistic insecurity (extract 3). However, there are drawbacks to standardisation. The Scots Language is an umbrella term that includes several different regional dialects. If one of these dialects were to become the prestigious written variety, others would probably not be taught in schools, and North-East Scots or Doric, might be ignored in favour of Central dialects, spoken in the parts of Scotland with the greatest population density. This could be seen as ‘another form of cultural imperialism’ (Macleod 1998, 127) and creates an artificial distinction between the Scots pupils learn at school and the everyday vernacular. One solution is to publish books and other educational resources in multiple regional dialects of the minority language, for example, Itchy Coo (2002–2022) has published The Gruffalo and the Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson in Scots, as well as several regional varieties of Scots: Doric (spoken in the North-East of Scotland), Dundonian, Glaswegian, Shetland and Orcadian. Mętrak, Bandur, and Szatkowski (2024) describe a similar situation where ‘The Little Prince’ has been translated into selected collateral languages of Poland. These books enable learners to read the language that is closest to their everyday vernacular, and each regional variety gains equal status through being printed. Bann and Corbett (2015, 139) comment that ‘orthography has become a focus for those who are interested in the relations between language, identity and power’. I would argue that in addition to the power relations between the majority and minority languages, English and Scots in this case, the power relations between regional varieties of Scots require similar attention, and that valuing, using, and teaching the locally specific Doric is vital for language maintenance. People from the North-East often claim a strong regional identity, linked to ‘Doric’ and often lack awareness of the Scots language (extract 4; Leslie 2021, 53). Teaching Doric spellings, as in extract 5, could help both to create a written standard and to increase the status of the regional variety.

Extract 4. We asked if he speaks Doric or Scots. And he said Doric, because he didn’t know if he spoke Scots. (Pupil)

Extract 5. We did Doric spelling in my class. They do spelling every week so this week I made them do Doric spellings. (Teacher, additional support for learning)

Lack of exposure to written Scots

Extract 6. In primary, you’d have to write down and try and get the spelling right, but they were all English words, never Scottish words. We never, ever read books that had Scottish words in it, just English words. (Pupil, Scots language class)

Extract 7. I find it really hard to write or even read in Doric. Cos you’re not used to it. At school back then there would have been nothing written in Doric. I dinna [don’t] think I’ve actually ever written anything. (School librarian)

Lack of exposure to written Scots has been a common experience for both the young people and the adults in this study. The pupil in extract 6 emphatically states that she ‘never, ever read books with Scottish words’ when she was in primary school, and the school librarian in extract 7 explains that she finds it difficult to write the North-East variety of Scots,1998Doric because she never read it when she was at school. This indicates that until extremely recently, generations of Scottish school pupils would only have learned to read English. The situation is beginning to change. The publishing imprint Itchy Coo was founded in 2002, and, in addition to The Gruffalo discussed earlier, has published Scots translations of novels such as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stane and The Diary of a Wimpy Wean in Scots. Pupils read The Diary of a Wimpy Wean and used it as inspiration for writing their own diaries in Scots. Niven (2017, 22) comments that commercial publishers have been reluctant to print resources for minority language teaching, although the internet has provided lower-cost alternatives for resource sharing, for example, Education Scotland, the Scots Language Centre, Scots Hoose, and Dictionaries of the Scots Language have free online resources. Scots dictionaries ‘give confidence to speakers and writers in the use of their own language’ (Evans 2009, 32) and ‘not only record the copiousness and variety of the Scots language but also contribute to asserting its social validity’ (Concise Scots Dictionary 2017, xv). The growing number of resources, plus the flexibility of the Curriculum for Excellence, enables teachers to develop lessons that are locally relevant and interesting to the pupils. We worked with teachers from across the school to create a shared understanding of the importance of basic skills development in Scots.

Confidence

Extract 8.

I don’t write it very well.

How do you know?

I don’t.

So is it that you don’t know that you are good? Or is it that you think you are making mistakes?

It just feels like I’m writing it wrong.

Ok. But if there’s no right way or wrong way to do it, why mightn’t you be doing it completely right? (Pupil and researcher)

The conversation in extract 8 indicates a lack of confidence in writing Scots. I found that many people had conflicting feelings about Scots, including shame and embarrassment having been told to ‘speak properly’ as well as pride and a sense of local or national identity as they learned more about the language. Could this ambivalence be a manifestation of changing attitudes and ideologies about Scots? Hegemonic negative attitudes that stigmatise Scots speakers are being challenged by the more recent idea that Scots speakers have two distinct languages as part of their linguistic repertoire. Shoba (2010, 398) comments that ‘the ambivalence and confusion surrounding Scots [needs] a courageous and critical dialogue with our own heritage’. In Banff Academy, Dr Fairbairn has created a place where Scots speakers flourish, and Scots learners are encouraged. His classroom is a place where critical dialogue is encouraged, linguistic norms are subverted, and Scots is valued as the language of instruction. Pupils are actively encouraged to speak, read and write in Scots. They learned about the history and development of Scots, became more confident of their linguistic heritage, and improved their Scots literacy. This has also had a wider impact throughout the school as seen in extract 9 where the school librarian says she is becoming ‘more comfortable’ speaking Scots in school. In extract 10, the Scots language expert comments that some learners have been disenfranchised from learning because of stigma towards Scots. One of the pupils wrote an entire essay on the history and development of Scots, in Scots. She excelled at the task, despite generally being disengaged from school, as described by her guidance teacher in extract 11.

Extract 9. It’s making me think, even as an adult, and It’s making me more comfortable to come in and speak the way I speak, and not turn into proper English. So brilliant. Fantastic. (School librarian)

Extract 10. Anything that builds confidence in learners, especially the ones who’ve been a bit disenfranchised from the learning experience because of the way they speak, it’s bound to have a positive effect. (Scots language expert)

Extract 11. They’d had to write a piece in Doric well, write a piece, and she wrote the whole piece in Doric. And it was fantastic, very well written, and you know very articulate. […] She was really, really disengaged. I think that was probably one of the most successful experiences that she had at school. You know, that she, she kind of stood out. She shone. (Guidance teacher)

Teacher attitudes

Extract 12. What did her mentor say?

She got told by her mentor to not speak Scots because it’s not proper.

Did she tell you what she thought about that?

She thought it was weird because she grew up speaking it, and was normal to her. She found it quite difficult at the start, because that’s all she was used to.

When she’s teaching now, how does she speak? (Pupil reporting back to researcher)

Proper English.

Extract 12 shows how language attitudes about Scots in education are transmitted through time. Negative attitudes were internalised by the recipient while she was a student teacher, who then changed her language practice accordingly. The interaction between the student teacher and her mentor was problematic because there was no space for critical dialogue. A similarly unequal power dynamic exists between teachers and pupils, particularly in a primary school setting, where pupils typically have only one teacher for a whole year, so their influence is strong, as seen in extract 13.

Extract 13. I mind in primary, some folk would get telt off. Yes, there was one teacher that I had in primary that was awful. She would potentially kick you out of the class if you didn’t speak proper English. (Pupil)

This data shows that teachers’ feelings and attitudes about language shape the school experiences of current pupils. Language attitudes are learned early in childhood (Giles 2003), and are influenced by a variety of factors including family, education, peer group and the media. Importantly, because language attitudes are learned, they can be changed (Dragojevic 2017). In our research, the challenge was to work with the whole school community to ameliorate language attitudes, subvert linguistic norms and position Scots as a valuable language that belongs in a school. The phrase ‘proper English’ recurs in several interviews in contrast with Scots. Lawson (2014, 145) comments that ‘in order to raise the status of Scots, it is necessary to end the assumption that speaking properly means speaking English’ ( italics in original). Fishman (1969) comments that it is in times of rapid social change that prior norms are abandoned before new norms are consolidated. The multiple references to ‘proper English’ evidence previous norms. Extract 14 indicates change over the past decade, and that naming Scots as a language rather than slang is becoming normalised, thus contributing to raising its status.

Extract 14. And I’ve noticed in the local area, folk have been sayin, I mean, 10 years ago, we all called it slang, and now we’re saying no it’s Scots language.

The classroom as the nexus of change in linguistic behaviour

Developing literacy skills

Extract 15. What’s been the best bit?

When we were doing poems or writing a letter in Scots. We had to send a letter about a bad experience. I like writing in Scots. (Interview between researcher and pupil)

Pupils worked with poems and other forms of literary Scots, and completed functional writing tasks, as part of a strategy to move from passive understanding, and a cultural appreciation of Scots, to active production of a more utilitarian Scots, as seen in extract 15. This strategy may help to bridge the gap between what Millar (2023, 76; 2005, 193) describes as the official and cultural parties within the Scots language movement. Writing complaint letters is an example of a literacy practice in everyday life (Barton 2000, 169); a skill that pupils can take beyond the classroom. The professional writers I interviewed described their experiences in developing their own Scots writing style:

Extract 16. If you’re going to spell it your own way, you’ve got to keep the consistency because as soon as you start spelling things differently within the same text or even in the same book, I’ve come to realise, you’re failing your reader. (Creative writer)

Extract 17. I just think you go with what’s successful, not wi what’s right. I dinnae care what the correct way is. I dinnae care what the historical way is. I care aboot the one maist folk readin will be able tae understand. (Journalist and Scots language teacher)

The regular practice allowed both the school pupils and the professional writers to develop their Scots writing and overcome the fear of being told they are doing it wrong. Both the creative writer (extract 16) and the journalist (extract 17) describe their process of learning to write in Scots, the barriers they have come up against and their strategies for overcoming these barriers. The key, once again, is a combination of skills development and confidence.

Social media

In a separate strand of this research, Dr Fairbairn and I circulated an electronic questionnaire to pupils and staff in the school, to gain a wider perspective on Scots usage from the general school population. Following Durham (2014, 313), we asked whether they used Scots or English more on different social media platforms, as well as in different spoken contexts, such as a job interview, talking with friends, or talking to a teacher. We found that written Scots usage varied across different forms of electronic communication. In texts, WhatsApp and Snapchat our participants wrote Scots more than English (Fairbairn and Needler 2019). Young people included innovative Scots acronyms as part of their text speak, for example, ‘KFL’ for ‘ken fit like’ [you know what I mean] ‘IDK’ ‘I dinna ken’ [I don’t know], ‘FYD’ for ‘fit ye deein’ [what are you doing]. This was true even for pupils who spoke less Scots, as seen in extract 18.

Extract 18.

I just don’t speak it that often, to be honest.

How about when you text?

Occasionally.

Occasionally more than when you speak?

Yeah. More than when I speak. (Pupil and researcher)

Writing online among friends is more informal and closer to speech than other forms of writing, and teenagers use language in similar ways online as in oral speech (Tagliamonte 2016, 224). Using Scots online could be a way to index local identity (Durham 2014, 313) and strengthen group identity.

Since pupils are writing in Scots every day, online, we can say that these pupils are already literate in Scots, albeit in an informal register in a private online domain, rather than a more public-facing Scots. There are different literacies associated with different domains of life (Barton and Hamilton 2000, 11), and the online domain of instant messaging is a particular social context with its own rules and conventions, that are towards the oral end of an oral/literate continuum (Murray 1988). The increasing use of social media is creating new opportunities for writing in Scots, as shown in extract 19.

Extract 19. So more and more, I am texting in Doric, if I can spell it, and if it doesnae jump back into some predictive text. (School librarian)

Increasing Scots in the linguistic landscape

Extract 20. Up until a few years ago, I would never ha seen Doric written down. (School librarian)

To increase the impact of our research and generate whole school involvement, we asked pupils, teachers and other members of staff to make posters of their favourite Scots word, and display them all around the school. (Figure 1.). This changed the Linguistic Landscape (Coupland 2010; Landry and Bourhis 1997, 25) of the school from predominantly English, to Scots, at least temporarily. The school librarian noted that seeing Doric in writing was a recent development (extract 20). Anderson (1983) discusses the role of print media in helping to foster a group identity, an ‘imagined community’. These cheaply produced, hand drawn posters helped to create a visual identity of a Scots language community within the school. This was very much a bottom-up approach, giving each pupil an opportunity to create a literate self. The poster for ‘peulie’, in Figure 1, is an example of hyperlocal vocabulary. In Banff, a seagull is called a ‘peul’ or a ‘peulie’, sometimes spelled ‘pule’ or ‘pyool’, whereas in Peterhead, 35 miles further east, they are more commonly called scurries (Kynoch 1996). The poster for ‘pints’ exemplifies oral transmission of the language. This pupil learned the Scots word for ‘shoelaces’ from his bus driver. It is defined in the Concise Scots Dictionary (2017) as ‘a tagged length of leather or cord used for fastening; a shoelace or bootlace.’

Figure 1. Favourite word posters (Photograph: Needler and Fairbairn 2020).

In an arts workshop, facilitated by a professional artist, we created a high-quality exhibition of portrait photographs of pupils representing a Scots word, accompanied by dictionary-style definitions, plus example sentences written by the pupils. Figure 2a shows a pupil eating a buttery, a type of bread roll with a high salt and fat content, typically eaten in the North-East of Scotland, that tastes similar to a croissant. Figure 2b shows a pupil who is ‘drookit’ – absolutely soaking wet. The exhibition is on permanent display in the school boardroom, a formal meeting space where English would typically be used. Foregrounding written Scots in this space ‘is an important marker of power and acknowledgement by those in authority’ (Mooney and Evans 2019, 112) as confirmed by the head teacher in extract 21.

Extract 21. It’s outstanding, absolutely outstanding. We’ve got it in our boardroom. All of our meetings are in there with councillors, directors, social workers, [and] the wider community, so they get to see it. It’s got a high-profile position in the school. I’m really pleased with it. (Head Teacher)

Figure 2. a. Exhibition panel ‘buttery’ (Image Caged Beastie 2018); b. Exhibition panel ‘drookit’ (Image Caged Beastie 2018).

Scots medium education

Extract 22. Do ye hink there should be the option o writin in Doric instead o English in some classes?

I think the choice should be provided. (Teacher)

I suppose it would depend on the class, wouldn’t it? (Teacher)

I definitely think there should be in English, because I’m an ex English teacher and I can really see the point of it there. (Teacher)

I find it easier. Even sometimes in English, I’ll just be writing my essay and a Doric word will slip in by accident and I didna realise, and get like a mark aff. I think you should be allowed to write in Doric. It’s easier. Well, for me onywye [anyway].

Participatory Action Research (PAR) was built into the learning activities to ensure that pupils were integral members of our research team. After an introduction to ethnographic research methods, pupils explored the school in small groups, armed with a sound recorder and digital camera. One pupil explicitly asked several teachers about Scots literacy, as seen in extract 22. He said he found Scots easier to write than English and was frustrated by being penalised when Scots words ‘slip in by accident’. Teachers were broadly supportive of pupils having the choice to write Scots in some subjects, especially English and the humanities. Following these discussions, Dr Fairbairn’s geography class translated a lesson on glaciation from English to Scots, which he then used with other classes, offering them a taste of Scots Medium Education, modelled on the current provision of Gaelic Medium Education (Education Scotland 2023), in which pupils can learn subjects including geography and history in Gaelic (Dongera, Visser, and Robertson 2001). It is unlikely that Scots Medium Education will be offered to pupils in the near future, partly due to cost, but also because of ideology, and the close relationship between English and Scots means the majority of pupils are also equally fluent in English. McPake and Arthur (2006, 165) discuss rationales for providing education in regional minority languages, stating that ‘the process of developing educational provision, materials and teaching approaches would help develop the language to meet the new demands made on it as a medium of instruction’. They continue to say that regional minority language medium education would ‘counter the educational disadvantage experienced by children who speak it at home but are forced to abandon it for the dominant language when they start school’, as recognised by the head teacher in extract 23, and experienced by the pupil in extract 22.

Extract 23. You could argue that young people who come from this area are disadvantaged because they have to sit their exams in a second language. (Head teacher)

Recommendations

During my interviews, I asked participants what they thought the future holds for Scots, and what can be done to support Scots as a language. In his discussion over possible futures for Scots, Millar (2020, 204) comments ‘the actual speaker body has been largely ignored in the debates [about ways to guarantee the survival of Scots].’ By foregrounding the voices of Scots learners, as well as considering the views of teachers and Scots language experts, the data in this study provides insights into the views of the ‘actual speaker body.’ The pupils recommended raising awareness of Scots as a language, sharing good practices from Banff Academy, teaching more Scots in more areas of Scotland, increasing the visibility of Scots in the linguistic landscape and producing Scots creative arts and literature.

In extract 24, the pupil talks about the importance of learning Scots as an element of cultural belonging. The pupil in extract 25 says ‘just speak it more’, and also sees a need for sharing the good practice from Banff Academy, both in other parts of Scotland and internationally. The pupil in extract 26 is hopeful that Scots will grow in popularity, and that Scots language classes will spread. The need for more opportunities for learning Scots was identified. As the pupil in extract 27 says, ‘it helps the language get stronger if more people are learning about it.’

Extract 24. Study it if you want to know more about Scottish history and heritage. I mean, learning Scots, it could help folk with identifying their cultural background. (pupil)

Extract 25. Jist bein spoken mair and being advertised fit we’re deein, like getting it oot and lettin mair countries, mair regions o Scotland see it. (pupil)

Extract 26. It’ll definitely become more and more popular as time goes on and Scots language classes could be happening all across Scotland. (pupil)

Extract 27. I’d say that it’s a pretty good thing to do. It helps the language get stronger if more people are learning about it. So I’d say definitely teach it, cos more people will learn about it and understand that Scots and English are two different languages and not the same. (pupil)

McClure (1997, 24) wrote, teaching Scots, and teaching about Scots will ‘change the tongue itself, and change speakers’ attitudes towards it’. The author in extract 28 agrees that attitudinal change is a vital first step towards developing a cultural understanding of Scots, so I asked pupils what they thought was the best way to promote positive attitudinal change. The pupil in extract 29 talks about increasing the visibility of written Scots in the linguistic landscape through Scots shop and roads signage. This could act as a conduit to bring new ideas about the validity of Scots from the school out into the community.

Extract 28. It’s about attitude towards it, it’s the route, the thing that needs to be changed first … I can see the positives of trying to change perceptions and confidence around speaking and just getting an understanding, a cultural understanding of where it comes from. (author)

Extract 29. Just bring it out to the community. Like for example the road signs, make more Doric road signs or signage for shops or Doric streets or something like that. Just bring it outside of the school and out to the community a bit more. (pupil)

Another important way to raise awareness of Scots and increase the visibility of the language would be through culture and media. The journalist extracted 30 comments that good quality media content would make a huge difference. The pupil in extract 31 makes specific recommendations for Scots movies and theatre productions, as well as more Scottish literature.

Extract 30. I genuinely think gettin Scots language media stuff which is confident and good and relevant, and just usin it, and no bein funny aboot it, will mak a huge difference. (journalist)

Extract 31. Just more like, they should do something like a theatre thing. Make more movies in Scots and maybe do a theatre in Scots. Stuff like that. We already know there’s lots of books that were written in English getting put in Scots, like Harry Potter, or Diary of a Wimpy Kid is now Diary of a Wimpy Bairn. It’s quite interesting, so hopefully that keeps going and gets more common. So people use it more. (pupil)

These recommendations echo the calls that teachers, academics, and language activists have called for since the 1970s (Lorvik 1995; McClure 1974; McClure, Aitken, and Low 1980; Niven & Jackson 1998).

Discussion and conclusions

Fear about the future of Scots is not new. ‘From at least the first half of the eighteenth century, Scots has always been thought to be dying out’ (Concise Scots Dictionary 2017, xv). However, UNESCO currently classifies Scots as ‘not particularly endangered’ (Moseley, Nicolas and UNESCO 2010, 37). Recent policy developments and educational reform have given Scots greater prominence in the school curriculum. However, a lack of awareness of Scots as a language, and the impact of linguistic prejudice, creates challenges for developing Scots literacy.

The research described in this article had two aims. The first was to discover factors that influence literacy developments in Scots, and the second was ‘to look closely and look locally’ (Creese 2010) at moments of transformation in Scots language teaching in Banff Academy. These research findings were generated through Participatory Action Research with one class of pupils in one school in Scotland, but our values-based approach and methodologies are transferable to other regional minority language contexts.

Our findings have yielded useful insights into the process of how ideological and attitudinal change can influence linguistic behaviour. The Participatory Action Research process shared power with all participants. The pupils are no longer advocates without power (Spolsky 2019, 326), but become agents driving change. The teacher was ‘taught in dialogue with the students’ (Freire 1993, 61) and used this learning to drive curricular innovations that have since been embedded within the Scots language curriculum at Banff Academy.

In light of recent changes in policies and attitudes towards Scots, the data of this study suggests that improving language attitudes leads to a change in linguistic behaviours, and that innovative pedagogical approaches can stimulate students to develop positive language attitudes and language awareness. Millar (2018, 198) suggested that the Scots language work in Banff was ‘individual enterprise masquerading as official policy and practice’ but has since ‘come round to the idea that the only way forward for the language is through its encouragement in education’ (Millar 2023, 115). Change is happening at a local level, and the classroom is at the confluence between top-down policy initiatives and bottom-up activism. The pupils themselves are important agents of change, as can be seen in extract 22, where pupil voice spurred on curricular innovation, encouraged by committed teachers. The Open University and Education Scotland have subsequently developed a teacher training course for Scots which Dr Fairbairn piloted at Banff Academy with a collaborative group of teachers. If this has good teacher uptake nationally, it has the potential to improve the status of Scots in schools. Initial Teacher Education courses must include Scots language teaching so that future teachers consider their own relationship with Scots.

There are still barriers to overcome. Developing an orthographic standard for Scots would make it easier to teach Scots consistently and produce learning materials suitable for use in the whole country. However, we need to pay close attention to regional dialects too, and not discourage people by telling them they are writing incorrectly. The fluidity afforded by the current lack of a standardised orthography has advantages for creative writing.

We should also acknowledge the ideological work that needs to be done. Raising awareness of Scots as a language, raising the status of Scots, and expanding the registers of Scots and the range of domains where Scots is used all contribute to language maintenance. Working to support the confidence and self-esteem of Scots native speakers and learners, to overcome negative internalised attitudes, creates a learning environment where writers can experiment and grow in confidence.

Since there are so many people who consider Scots to be a language to be proud of and express the wish to develop literacy in Scots, there are good reasons for demanding more efforts to provide adequate literacy development opportunities. Scots is an important part of Scotland’s cultural heritage and is now increasingly supported by government and educational bodies.

There are strong parallels between the current position of Scots and other minority languages such as Kashubian in Poland or Latgalian in Latvia. Teaching these languages in school will give pupils both the skills and confidence needed to develop literacy competence. In the Scottish context, we can learn from bilingual education programmes such as Gaelic Medium Education, and the dedication and enthusiasm of language activists and teachers.

Geolocation information

The research was conducted in Banff Academy in North-East Scotland, UK.

Ethical Approval

I confirm that the research described in this was granted ethical approval by the University of Aberdeen Committee for Research Ethics & Governance in Arts, Social Sciences & Business, on 2nd August 2018, with the title article ‘Unconscious Bilingualism: Acknowledging Language in the Heartland of Scots’. All participants, (or their parents or guardians if under 18) gave informed consent for the use of their interview data and photographs to be used for academic publication, by signing the Elphinstone Institute contributor consent form.

Our ethics approval system does not generate approval numbers, however if required, you may use the reference number at the top of this letter (EC/CN/020818) as a unique reference number for this ethical approval.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by British Educational Research Association: [Grant Number BCF Curriculum Innovation Grant 2018-2019]; University of Aberdeen: [Grant Number Elphinstone Scholarship].