Stirling education expert develops teaching tool from family audio cassettes

The tapes were sent between families in Pakistan and Scotland and form part of social history project Tape Letters Scotland.

woman's hands holding cassette tape
'Tape Letters' were a communication method used by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in Scotland between 1960 and 1980. Photo by Miriam Ali.

A University of Stirling education expert has developed a teaching resource that takes a unique approach to the colonisation of India – through family audio tapes.

The resource uses tapes sent between families in Pakistan and Scotland to help learners in upper primary to lower secondary schools understand the struggles of migrant communities, as well as promoting empathy and critical thinking.

The teaching resource was created by Nuzhat Uthmani, a primary teacher and lecturer in primary education at the University of Stirling as part of the Tape Letters Scotland project.

Launched in 2022, Tape Letters Scotland is a social-history project which shines a light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tape as an unorthodox method of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in Scotland between 1960-1980. The project has created an archive of recordings from messages sent on cassette tape and oral history interviews with the people who used them.

The Tape Letters Scotland Learning Resource is designed to supplement text-based resources.

Nuzhat, of the University of Stirling's Faculty of Social Sciences, said: “This new teaching tool will help our young people learn about the impact of colonisation on pre-partition British India – something not available in Scotland’s school curricula. But its benefits go beyond the classroom and beyond oral history. Using Tape Letters will also help Scotland’s young people understand diversity and have compassion for inclusivity – values that are at the heart of the Scottish Government’s vision for anti-racist education.”

As a descendent of parents who were personally impacted upon by the partition and creation of Pakistan and India as independent states in 1947, Nuzhat has a keen interest in the partition of British India. She is also in the process of developing Scotland's first teaching and learning resource for schools based on the history of partition.

Nuzhat added: “I feel it is vital for our younger generation to understand the history of the communities that make up Scotland and the UK today. It is an integral part of British history.”
The Tape Letters Scotland Learning Resource is available free online for educators by visiting http://tapeletters.com/learning-resources/

The Tape Letters Scotland archive now resides in the National Library of Scotland. Tape Letters Scotland is a Modus Arts project, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.