‘Personal Response’ and English Teaching

A case study relating to secondary education, examining the teacher student relationship as it operates within the English classroom is the topic of this paper. It describes how a certain conception of 'personal response' to literature provided a means for the teacher/counsellor to form the ethical capacities of children. 'Personal response' is usually associated with the moment in which the child is freed to be most natural. But for all the emphasis upon the irreducibly individual nature of the 'genuinely felt response', this pedagogic exercise finds its place within a series of strategies designed both to cherish and correct the child, to nurture and to scrutinise, to guide and to reconstruct.

Australian literature : culture, identity and English teaching

The development of the Australian Curriculum has reignited a debate about the role of Australian literature in the contexts of curricula and classrooms. A review of the mechanisms for promoting Australian literature including literary prizes, databases, surveys and texts included for study in senior English classrooms in New South Wales and Victoria provides a background for considering the purpose of Australian texts and the role of literature teachers in shaping students’ engagement with literature.

Standing brave in the face of rapid curriculum change : EAL/D teachers speak about critical literacy and its place in senior English teaching

Critical literacy (CL) has been the subject of much debate in the Australian public and education arenas since 2002. Recently, this debate has dissipated as literacy education agendas and attendant policies shift to embrace more hybrid models and approaches to the teaching of senior English. This paper/presentation reports on the views expressed by four teachers of senior English about critical literacy and it’s relevance to students who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who are learning English while undertaking senior studies in high school. Teachers’ understandings of critical literacy are important, esp. given the emphasis on Critical and Creative Thinking and Literacy as two of the General Capabilities underpinning the Australian national curriculum. Using critical discourse analysis, data from four specialist ESL teachers in two different schools were analysed for the ways in which these teachers construct critical literacy. While all four teachers indicated significant commitment to critical literacy as an approach to English language teaching, the understandings they articulated varied from providing forms of access to powerful genres, to rationalist approaches to interrogating text, to a type of ‘critical-aesthetic’ analysis of text construction. Implications are also discussed.

Great Expectations : stability and change in English teaching : the teacher as chameleon

Curriculum is always in a state of flux and so often the moves to ‘reform’ it are political rather than pedagogical. So often in these days of accountability we focus on the learner. I want to focus on the teacher in this presentation. As English educators we have to ‘fit’ whatever new policy model comes our way. The Australian curriculum seems to have tried to please every stakeholder in its process and as such has been formed without a single, unifying coherent theoretical basis. How do we challenge this paper tiger? We have to find the pedagogical models within the current framework and see what still works in practice. At the chalk-face there are still teaching, learning and assessment practices in English surviving from the last few decades of pedagogical change; and there is also room for accommodating new practices. Embracing and adapting the old and the new may be the key to staying creative and passionately engaged with our subject area.

An Approach to the Integration of Skills in English Teaching. 'Un acercamiento a la integración de habilidades en la enseñanza del inglés'.

Resumen de la revista

English teaching in the secondary school : linking theory and practice.

Es un texto para la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa en las escuelas secundarias dirigido a los profesores que estudian, están recién titulados ó son experimentados docentes. Cumple con los requisitos del plan nacional de estudios inglés para el año 2000 y con la Estrategia Nacional de Alfabetización (National Literacy Strategy) para la etapa 3 (key stage 3). Entre sus objetivos están: dar ideas prácticas específicas que vinculen la teoría y la práctica y estimular el pensamiento crítico sobre la enseñanza del inglés.

Inspired English teaching : a practical guide for teachers.

Este manual se centra en un examen más detallado de los planes de estudio, porque las escuelas que trabajan para mejorar su oferta para los superdotados tienen la necesidad de una orientación más detallada en determinadas áreas. Diseñado principalmente para el maestro de primaria, está estructurado en seis capítulos en donde se analiza lo que las escuelas deben estar tratando de lograr y por qué, destaca el hecho de que la capacidad lingüística se reconoce a menudo a una edad temprana del niño y los logros significativos que pueden ocurrir antes de que éste llegue a escuela, mira las matemáticas en la escuela primaria y considera lo que representa ser dotado en matemáticas y cómo la escuela podría reconocer matemáticos dotados, considera la ciencia y su papel en ayudar a los niños a desarrollarse como pensadores sofisticados, explora el papel de las TIC como herramienta de aprendizaje.

Literature, literacy and the discourses of English teaching: a case study

This article examines the discourses of English teaching, and their implications for subject and literacy teaching and learning. Case study evidence is presented to illustrate the ways in which competing discourses are enacted in the classroom. We argue the need to critically examine the educational value of teacher discourses, which have an important impact on instructional practices and the quality of pupils' learning.

The status of literature: English teaching and the condition of literature teaching in schools

Although the curriculum subject of English is continually reviewed and revised in all English speaking countries, the status of literature is rarely questioned i.e. that it is of high cultural value and all students should be taught about it. The concerns of any review, in any country, are typically about what counts as literature, especially in terms of national heritage and then how much of the curriculum should it occupy. This article reports on three inter-related pieces of research that examine the views of in-service, and pre-service, English teachers about their experiences of teaching literature and their perceptions of its ‘status’ and significance at official level and in the actual classroom; it draws attention to how England compares to some other English speaking countries and draws attention to the need to learn from the negative outcomes of political policy in England. The findings suggest that the nature of engagement with literature for teachers and their students has been distorted by official rhetorics and assessment regimes and that English teachers are deeply concerned to reverse this pattern.

A framework for English? Or a vehicle for literacy? English teaching in England in the age of the Strategy

This article considers the evolution and impact on schools in England of the "Framework for English" since its introduction in 2001, a national initiative that follows on from the National Literacy Strategy, which focused on primary schools. Whilst acknowledging that the Framework is part of a whole school policy, "The Key Stage Three Strategy", I concentrate on its direct impact on the school subject "English" and on standards within that subject. Such a discussion must incorporate some consideration of the rise of "Literacy" as a dominant term and theme in England (and globally) and its challenge to a politically controversial and much contested curriculum area, i.e. "English". If the Framework is considered within the context of the Literacy drive since the mid-1990s then it can be see to be evolving within a much changed policy context and therefore likely to change substantially in the next few years. In a global context England has been regarded for some time as at the extreme edge of standards-driven policy and practice. It is hoped that the story of "English" in England may be salutary to educators from other countries.