“I woke up and realised the ground had shifted”: the shifting terrain of English curriculum

The theme of this conference comes from the epitaph on the Lewis Carroll’s gravesite. “Is All our Life then But A Dream?” This seems fitting for a time when so much change in the terrain of English makes us feel as if we are somnambulating through a surrealist landscape. Like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, (Carroll, 2003) we might find ourselves at strange tea parties with bureaucratic mad hatters, and just when we think we have a grasp of applying new theory in our teaching, we fall down another rabbit hole, to swim in confusion as some queen calls out, ‘off with their heads!’. The shifting ground in English inevitably moves in response to waves of theory influencing classroom practice. Each new paradigm has claimed to liberate language learners from the flaws of the previous model. Each linguist or literary theorist who shaped the new paradigm no doubt dreamt of a new population emerging from school as more powerfully literate citizens than the previous generation.

Questions of English : ethics, aesthetics, rhetoric, and the formation of the subject in England, Australia and the United States

The impact and content of English as a subject on the curriculum is once more the subject of lively debate. Questions of English sets out to map the development of English as a subject and how it has come to encompass the diversity of ideas that currently characterise it. Drawing on a combination of historical analysis and recent research findings Robin Peel, Annette Patterson and Jeanne Gerlach bring together and compare important new insights on curriculum development and teaching practice from England, Australia and the United States. They also discuss the development of teacher training, highlighting the variety of ways in which teachers build their own beliefs and knowledge about English.

The 3D model of l(IT)eracy and the English curriculum

The field of literacy studies has always been challenged by the changing technologies that humans have used to express, represent and communicate their feelings, ideas, understandings and knowledge. However, while the written word has remained central to literacy processes over a long period, it is generally accepted that there have been significant changes to what constitutes ‘literate’ practice. In particular, the status of the printed word has been challenged by the increasing dominance of the image, along with the multimodal meaning-making systems facilitated by digital media. For example, Gunther Kress and other members of the New London Group have argued that the second half of the twentieth century saw a significant cultural shift from the linguistic to the visual as the dominant semiotic mode. This in turn, they suggest, was accompanied by a cultural shift ‘from page to screen’ as a dominant space of representation (e.g. Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Kress, 2003; New London Group, 1996). In a similar vein, Bill Green has noted that we have witnessed a shift from the regime of the print apparatus to a regime of the digital electronic apparatus (Lankshear, Snyder and Green, 2000). For these reasons, the field of literacy education has been challenged to find new ways to conceptualise what is meant by ‘literacy’ in the twenty first century and to rethink the conditions under which children might best be taught to be fully literate so that they can operate with agency in today’s world.

Assessment and curriculum reform in China : the college English test and tertiary English as a foreign language education.

Educational assessment was a worldwide commonplace practice in the last century. With the theoretical underpinnings of education shifting from behaviourism and social efficiency to constructivism and cognitive theories in the past two decades, the assessment theories and practices show a widespread changing movement. The emergent assessment paradigm, with a futurist perspective, indicates a deviation away from the prevailing large scale high-stakes standardised testing and an inclination towards classroom-based formative assessment. Innovations and reforms initiated in attempts to achieve better education outcomes for a sustainable future via more developed learning and assessment theories have included the 2007 College English Reform Program (CERP) in Chinese higher education context. This paper focuses on the College English Test (CET) - the national English as a Foreign Language (EFL) testing system for non-English majors at tertiary level in China. It seeks to explore the roles that the CET played in the past two College English curriculum reforms, and the new role that testing and assessment assumed in the newly launched reform. The paper holds that the CET was operationalised to uplift the standards. However, the extended use of this standardised testing system brings constraints as well as negative washback effects on the tertiary EFL education. Therefore in the newly launched reform -CERP, a new assessment model which combines summative and formative assessment approaches is proposed. The testing and assessment, assumed a new role - to engender desirable education outcomes. The question asked is: will the mixed approach to formative and summative assessment provide the intended cure to the agony that tertiary EFL education in China has long been suffering - spending much time, yet achieving little effects? The paper reports the progresses and challenges as informed by the available research literature, yet asserts a lot needs to be explored on the potential of the assessment mix in this examination tradition deep-rooted and examination-obsessed society.

A national English curriculum far all Australian youth: Making it work for teacher and students everywhere

The authors draw on some powerful practitioner research they have been associated with recently to nvision ways in which a national curriculum might redress the inequities experienced by Australia's most disadvantaged young people.

Digital storytelling, podcasts, blogs and vlogs : exploring a range of new media texts and forms in English

Curriculum initiatives in Australia emphasise the use of technologies and new media in classrooms. Some English teachers might fear this deployment of technologies because we are not all ‘digital natives’ like our students. If we embrace new media forms such as podcasts, blogs, vodcasts, and digital stories, a whole new world of possibilities open up for literary response and recreative texts, with new audiences and publication spaces. This article encourages English teachers to embrace these new digital forms and how shows we can go about it.

Years 2 to 6 students' ability to generalise : models, representations and theory for teaching and learning

Over the last three years, in our Early Algebra Thinking Project, we have been studying Years 3 to 5 students’ ability to generalise in a variety of situations, namely, compensation principles in computation, the balance principle in equivalence and equations, change and inverse change rules with function machines, and pattern rules with growing patterns. In these studies, we have attempted to involve a variety of models and representations and to build students’ abilities to switch between them (in line with the theories of Dreyfus, 1991, and Duval, 1999). The results have shown the negative effect of closure on generalisation in symbolic representations, the predominance of single variance generalisation over covariant generalisation in tabular representations, and the reduced ability to readily identify commonalities and relationships in enactive and iconic representations. This chapter uses the results to explore the interrelation between generalisation and verbal and visual comprehension of context. The studies evidence the importance of understanding and communicating aspects of representational forms which allowed commonalities to be seen across or between representations. Finally the chapter explores the implications of the studies for a theory that describes a growth in integration of models and representations that leads to generalisation.

What happened to the education revolution? : new media technologies and the Australian curriculum : constraints and possibilities

This chapter investigates the place of new media in Queensland in the light of the Australian curriculum. ‘Multimodal texts’ in English are being defined as largely electronically ‘created’ and yet restricted access to digital resources at the chalkface may preclude this work from happening. The myth of the ‘digital native’ (Prensky, 2007), combined with the reality of the ‘digital divide’ coupled with technophobia amongst some quite experienced teachers, responsible for implementing the curriculum, paints a picture of constraints. These constraints are due in part to protective state bans in Queensland on social networking sites and school bans on mobile phone use. Some ‘Generation next’ will have access to digital platforms for the purpose of designing texts at home and school, and others will not. Yet without adequate Professional Development for teachers and substantially increased ICT infrastructure funding for all schools, the way new media and multimodal opportunities are interpreted at state level in the curriculum may leave much to be desired in schools. This chapter draws on research that I recently conducted on the professional development needs of beginning teachers, as well as a critical reading of the ACARA policy documents.

Supervising freedom : the English profile : English curriculum; English pedagogy

This paper reflects on the development of the Profile - English as the first attempt in Australia to provide national guidelines for this subject area. It attempts to unpack the divided positions that inevitably accompany attempts to develop national curricula in a country where schooling is ruled by state and territory jurisdictions. The paper argues that English as a subject area promotes a particular understanding of schooling as either a failed attempt to achieve emancipatory goals on behalf of individuals or as a too-successful attempt to inequitably train individuals for the routines of labour. The attempt to produce a nationally consistent (English) curriculum appears to confront this understanding of schooling. The paper draws on the work of Ian Hunter (1988, 1994a) to suggest some alternative ways of thinking about the relationship between schooling and English curriculum

Towards Asia literacy : the Australian curriculum and Asian-Australian children's literature

This paper is concerned with the ways Asia Literacy can be developed in response to the new Australian Curriculum. In particular, it addresses the learning possibilities of the Asian-Australian Literature and Publishing Project (AACLAP) available through AustLit: the Australian Literature Resource. The paper argues that the AACLAP dataset provides a broad range of resources through which to address the cross curriculum priority of the Australian Curriculum on Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia. It contends that AACLAP has the potential to make a valuable contribution to teachers’ efforts to incorporate this cross curriculum priority in their classroom practice whilst also developing the general capabilities of intercultural understanding and the use of information and communication technology (ICT). This discussion is of particular significance to teachers of English and History, given that these disciplines are implemented in the first phase of the Australian Curriculum in schools. The paper concludes that by drawing on the broad range of texts available in the AACLAP collection as well as the Critical Anthology and the Research and Learning Trails, teachers and students will be much better positioned to develop a deeper understanding of the diversity of the Asian region and the complexities of Asian-Australian relationships.

Conceptualising teachers’ assessment literacies in an era of curriculum and assessment reform

Teacher assessment literacy is a phrase that is often used but rarely defined. Yet understanding teacher assessment literacy is important in an international curriculum and assessment reform context that continues to challenge teachers’ assessment practices. In this article situated examples of classroom assessment literacies are analysed using Bernstein’s (Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research and critique, Taylor and Francis, London, 1996; Br J Sociol Educ 20(2):157–173, 1999) theoretical tools of vertical and horizontal discourses, classification and framing. Drawing on a sociocultural view of learning, the authors define teacher assessment literacies as dynamic social practices which are context dependent and which involve teachers in articulating and negotiating classroom and cultural knowledges with one another and with learners, in the initiation, development and practice of assessment to achieve the learning goals of students. This conceptualisation of assessment literacy aims to make explicit some underpinning theoretical constructs of assessment literacy to inform dialogue and decision making for policy and practice to benefit student learning and achievement.

Higher order thinking in chemistry curriculum and its assessment

Higher-order thinking has featured persistently in the reform agenda for science education. The intended curriculum in various countries sets out aspirational statements for the levels of higher-order thinking to be attained by students. This study reports the extent to which chemistry examinations from four Australian states align and facilitate the intended higher-order thinking skills stipulated in curriculum documents. Through content analysis, the curriculum goals were identified for each state and compared to the nature of question items in the corresponding examinations. Categories of higher-order thinking were adapted from the OECD’s PISA Science test to analyze question items. There was considerable variation in the extent to which the examinations from the states supported the curriculum intent of developing and assessing higher-order thinking. Generally, examinations that used a marks-based system tended to emphasize lower-order thinking, with a greater distribution of marks allocated for lower-order thinking questions. Examinations associated with a criterion-referenced examination tended to award greater credit for higher-order thinking questions. The level of complexity of chemistry was another factor that limited the extent to which examination questions supported higher-order thinking. Implications from these findings are drawn for the authorities responsible for designing curriculum and assessment procedures and for teachers.

CUOL – "See You Online" : teaching strategies for digital literacy practices in the English curriculum

Literacy educator Kathy Mills, observes that creating multimodal and digital texts is an essential part of the national English curriculum in Australia. Here, she presents five practical and engaging ways to transform conventional writing tasks in a digital world.

Fostering rapid transitions to education for sustainable development through a whole-system approach to curriculum and organizational change

Despite decades of attempts to embed sustainability within higher education, literature clearly suggests that highly regulated disciplines such as engineering have been relatively slow to incorporate sustainability knowledge and skill areas, and are generally poorly prepared to do so. With current efforts, it is plausible that sustainability could take another two decades to be embedded within the curriculum. Within this context, this paper presents a whole system approach to implement systematic, intentional and timely curriculum renewal that is responsive to emerging challenges and opportunities, encompassing curriculum and organizational change. The paper begins by considering the evolution of curriculum renewal processes, documenting a number of whole system considerations that have been empirically distilled from literature, case studies, pilot trials, and a series of workshops with built environment educators from around the world over the last decade. The paper outlines a whole-of-institution curriculum renewal approach to embedding sustainability knowledge and skills within the DNA of the institutional offerings. The paper concludes with a discussion of research and practice implications for the field of education research, within and beyond higher education.

‘The struggle for welcome’ : valuing difference through refugee stories in the English Curriculum

This paper is concerned with how refugee stories can be used as the means of exploring values and developing intercultural understanding in the English classroom. To illustrate this possibility, André Dao’s (2005) Vuot Bien – The Search for Freedom: Huong Thi Nguen’s Story, about the impact of war and oppression on people’s lives, together with the experience of seeking freedom and acceptance in Australia as a Vietnamese refugee, is selected as the text for a Year 9 English class. In examining the features of this short story, we also consider how recent efforts to foster intercultural understanding in the new national curriculum in Australia might be advanced in the English classroom. We argue that this text and others in the genre of refugee narratives written by young people, provide vicarious opportunities to analyse how valuing freedom and having the courage to seek it can be brought to light when an individual survives one life and begins the challenges of creating a new life among strangers. Examining the values dimensions of such texts also allows young people to unpack and critique the ways in which cultural experiences, including their own, shape and form identities and how engaging with the experiences of others can be the vehicle for valuing difference. We hope our discussion might encourage teachers in other countries undergoing cultural shifts in response to the movements of people will be encouraged to consider this ‘double entendre’ in which the refugee experience is shaped not only by ‘the journey’ and also by ‘the arrival’ and the degree to which newcomers, refugee or asylum seekers, are made welcome by the receiving community.