The Prince's Teaching Institute (PTI), which has evolved out of the Summer Schools for English Literature and History which The Prince of Wales inaugurated in 2002, now provides a variety of courses in the major subjects of the secondary curriculum. In partnership with Cambridge University it enables teachers to update and extend their subject…

The Common Core generally eschews mandating texts in favor of promoting critical analysis and rigor. So it's significant that Shakespeare is the only author invoked in imperatives. His explicit inclusion offers a significant opportunity for educators to rethink how we approach Shakespearean instruction. Rather than the traditional learning of…

As the world marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth, social workers may take note of the contributions Dickens made to 19th century social reform. Ever the advocate for people who were poor and oppressed, Dickens, in his timeless fictional narratives, continues to have relevance for contemporary social justice advocacy. This…

This article explores why some universities may be "invisible" to adults in their local communities. It suggests that funding changes in UK higher education, particularly those initiated by the Browne Review in 2010, may reinforce such a divide. The article draws on Stefan Collini's critiques of government policy, particularly in…

In scouring the earliest editions of "English Journal," one of the most fascinating details one uncovers is that the issues facing Shakespeare teachers today are similar to those issues that faced Shakespeare teachers 100 years ago. The earliest contributors to "English Journal" were far more in line with contemporary educational scholars than one…

Geography may not be particularly known as a hot topic among today's students--even some advocates suggest it suffers from an image problem--but by at least one measure, the subject is starting to come into its own. Across more than 30 topics covered in the Advanced Placement (AP) program, participation in geography is rising faster than any…

This paper argues that environmental destruction arises from a discourse rooted in Western Economic and Scientific Theory. This discourse artificially separates individuals from our natural world and argues that competition and utilitarian actions are beneficial to society. It is however, a discourse that is taking us to a Shakespearean tragic…

Maria Edgeworth's pedagogical short stories "Mademoiselle Panache" (1800, 1801) and "The Good French Governess" (1801) portray contrasting French instructors, and illustrate a transformation in English girls' education in French at the end of the eighteenth century. While "Mademoiselle Panache" looks back to the…

This collaborative inquiry answers the following questions: 1) What is the nature of talk during Socratic Circles? 2) What is student response to talk? 3) How might knowing more about student response to talk and the nature of talk improve teaching during Socratic Circles? The article first describes the process of implementing Socratic Circles,…

Most students of the joint degree in "English Philology and Tourism," taught at the University of Jaén (Spain), usually complain about the fact that the teaching of literature is sometimes reduced to the theoretical study of literary periods and bio-bibliographical data about authors. This approach overlooks one of the main functions of…

This is the exposition of a Western teacher working abroad in Thailand and his coming to terms with what it means to find a home and a sense of belonging while learning to teach in an unfamiliar land and culture. A foreign teacher finds himself isolated between feelings of perceived power (as an educated Westerner) and his all too real feelings of…

Economies make their demands, and by necessity, people adjust, learn, and survive. People adjust to tight circumstances with passion and ingenuity. Necessity and its passions are the stuff of reality and generally more than schools or educational research can handle. Mainstream theories of learning have captured economic constraints only…

Shakespeare molded language to meet his needs. Can students learn from his example? In this article, the author suggests studying Shakespeare's creative use of functional shift, spelling, and vocabulary to help students develop greater control of their own writing. The author is advocating that teachers approach Shakespeare as descriptive…

Engaging 9th grade students in contemporary reality-show parodies based on "Great Expectations," the author helps students explore the intricacies of Charles Dickens's novel. In "Stay Tuned for Our Next Episode: Teaching 'Great Expectations' in Installments," the author highlighted the benefits of teaching "Great Expectations" in installments, as…

A stylistic analysis is one approach of analyzing a literary text using literary descriptions. The use of literary texts in the literature classroom has been limited to mostly Western sources. This paper is an attempt to create an awareness of the linguistic features present in the English language translations of the meaning of the Quran. The…