This article uses complexity theory's concept of 'shadow systems' to explore innovative ways of teaching Shakespeare, particularly "The Merchant of Venice." Using data drawn from observations at a secondary school in Sydney, Australia, and interviews with two secondary teachers, this article aims to consider how embracing ideas which…

Contemporary curriculum guidelines, such as those provided in the incoming Australian curriculum, call for English to attend to multimodal forms of text and literacy as well as more traditional forms. Students are expected to become capable and critical readers, users and creators of texts and forms of literacy that span everything from newspapers…

Teaching William Shakespeare's canonical tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" to teenagers in the context of the English classroom in Australia is not a particularly new pedagogical practice. In the year 2008, when many teachers (particularly those with a feminist bent such as I) are intent on guiding their students to decipher the ideological…