Steinbeck’s 1937 novel is currently one of five options offered to schools as part of a unit in the WJEC’s English literature GCSE.
It is set at the time of the Great Depression and follows two ranch workers in California who move from place to place looking for work.
Rhian Evans, an English teacher at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin in Carmarthen, said it was a popular choice for schools because it was accessible for children of all abilities and introduced important themes about “how we treat each other in general in our societies”.
They did not repeat the N-word while discussing the book in their classroom, she said.
“We always discuss why we don’t use it and I think it does allow for that discussion,” she said.
“But I think the truth is that as a white woman I will never know what it feels like to be a child of colour in a classroom where they are forced to encounter that word as part of their GCSE education.”
Though Of Mice and Men “would be missed,” Ms Evans said there were other authors “who come from all sorts of backgrounds and who would perhaps also introduce the same kind of themes, but in a more relevant and a more modern way to pupils of today”.