An enduring problem in English curriculum and pedagogy is that listening and speaking, as intricately interconnected interactional practices, are often treated separately. In classroom discussions, attention is predominantly drawn to vocalisation as the key element of dialogue. Furthermore, listening as a silent embodied activity, is often taken…

The UK's "Prime Minister's Questions"--a television program that shows parliamentary proceedings and banter between House of Commons members--can be a free, real-world resource for rhetorical analysis opportunities. In this article, the author presents the inherent value of these sessions in the classroom as a means of creatively…

I respond to the conference theme 'English across the Curriculum' by suggesting that 'Academic literacy' should be taught across the curriculum. I first explain the concept of academic literacy, which describes the range of abilities that students have to acquire when starting out in a new academic discipline. I then discuss the dominant…

How can secondary English teachers assign and teach argumentative writing to foreground its significance for students and their life trajectories? This article compares three approaches -- formalist, structured process and conversational entry -- in the light of this aim. Through analysis of exemplar assignments, the comparison illustrates the…

This article reviews Margaret Meek Spencer's body of work in relation to the various policies that she critiqued from the Bullock Report in 1974 to the National Literacy Strategy in 2004. She analysed increasingly conservative moves to promote a dominant, elitist version of school literacy. A Critical Realist perspective aligns with Margaret Meek…

The growing interest in the history of curriculum and pedagogy in subject English might be seen as a response to educational reforms that are replacing earlier, progressive understandings of subject English with narrowly technical understandings of teacher professional knowledge and practice. This essay emerges out of an intergenerational,…

In participatory cultures, the lines between producers and consumers of text are blurred, and communities emerge that are based on shared interest and peer support. Although literacy scholarship has mostly focused on youth engagement and literacy practices within online participatory cultures, scholars in the learning sciences investigate these…

Purpose: This paper aims to introduce the concept of adaptive agency and illustrate its emergence in the field of English teaching in a number of countries using England over the past 30 years as a case study. It examines how the exceptional flexibility of English as school subject has brought many external impositions whilst its teachers have…

This article explores the ways in which the teaching of canonical texts such as Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" intersects with discourses of race and identity in multicultural classrooms. Informed by Chinua Achebe's post-colonial reading of Conrad and the concept of 'double consciousness' adopted by W. E. B. Du Bois, I examine my…

Focusing on moments in the English classroom imbued with affective forces that produce racial differentiation is central to the support of classrooms addressing race and racism. This work focuses on an event in an English classroom where race was constructed in ways that disrupted not only silence but habitual ways of social differentiation.…

This essay explores some of the problems that emerge from the imposition of a very narrow conception of the English literary heritage on pupils across England. It considers the role of government and school policy -- and of teachers and pupils -- in mediating set texts, and the ways in which problematic aspects of these texts are questioned and…

Just after the First World War the English Association published The Teaching of English in Schools. It argues that developing children's 'creative spirit' is fundamental to maintaining peace in Europe. Seventy years later, the first National Curriculum promotes a creative, unitary English appropriate for 'a European context'. In contrast, today's…

The Performance Measures for Student Success Report is the North Carolina Community College System's major accountability document. This annual performance report is based on data compiled from the previous year and serves to inform colleges and the public on the performance of North Carolina's 58 community colleges. Every three years, a committee…

In this article I reflect on the early formation of my professional identity and practice. I argue that much of my early practice was 'decorative' in that it masked dominant structures and discourses that often limited learning opportunities. I consider how a dialogic approach to school English is important for offering more authentic teaching and…

This Remediation report is in response to Ohio Revised Code section 3345.061 (H), which requires the Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to issue a report recommending policies and strategies for reducing the need for academic remediation and developmental courses at state…