The power of the coloniser within colonial Australia is clear when we consider how central to the teaching and learning and schooling in Australia is the privileging of Standard Australian English. Prior to 1788, the peoples and the lands of this country were abound with languages. That was until the coloniser exerted their power and insisted on a…

The paper describes a module within the distance language learning environment of the Language Centre at the Genoa University which adapts, through an ontology, learning activities to the device in use. Adaptation means not simply resizing a page but also the ability to transform the nature of a task so that it fits the device with the smallest…

This paper reports on an evaluation of a distinctive university-school partnership program, Curriculum Bridges. Curriculum Bridges aims to develop the enthusiasm and capacity of students from disadvantaged schools in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). These objectives are sought by developing a theme in the…

The current version of the draft National Curriculum (1.0.1) remains a document which dis-integrates the subject through its three strands and fails to conceptualise a relationship between these strands. Drawing on curriculum history, I argue that this stands in strong contrast to a curriculum such as the 1971 NSW Syllabus for Years 7-10, which…

In a response to the Minnesota Conference on the Future of Doctoral Study in English, argues that literary theory has redirected attention to the medieval liberal arts of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. (JK)

Solomon Henry Clark's 1895 address entitled "The New Elocution," focused on the denigration of elocution as an academic discipline, its fall from favor with universities, and the worn, tired, and reductive methods of teaching which he saw around him. Clark's vision--as he stated in his 1915 address and book entitled "Interpretation…

Realism is a continuing trend in adolescent literature. Sixteen new books for teenagers--one nonfiction book about death; five novels dealing with the themes of parents' divorce and remarriage, self-identity, old age, and passive acceptance of life; two "how-to" books on fishing and candlemaking; and eight anthologies of poetry dealing with…

This paper argues that multicultural education highlighting minority or ethnic groups in both English classes and other classes cannot be isolated from the curriculum as a whole. The underlying impetus behind the institution of multicultural education is the emphasis of cultural pluralism and of working toward a society where all people can live…

For at least three reasons, university English faculties should reassess their attitudes toward children's literature, a field of vital importance in children's education. First, specialists in children's literature are sorely needed in English departments, where courses on the subject properly belong (rather than in colleges of education).…

Although Matthew Arnold may appear to be the representative of an increasingly irrelevant elitist vision by advocating a culture ultimately dependent on the exclusion of all but the very best in thought and expression, in fact he remains the writer who reminds us of the necessity for a social vision of ourselves superior to any mere provincialism.…

This paper presents a commentary on the Report of the Commission on English published in 1965, "Freedom and Discipline in English." In particular, inconsistencies between the Commission's Recommendation 13, calling for a clearly defined sequence of study from grade to grade, and other statements apparently contradicting this sequential structure…

Even a quick tour through the professional literature of composition and rhetoric reveals that the profession has failed to bring about any real change in first-year college composition. The truth is that today the political and material conditions of first-year composition programs are not much different from that they were over a half century…

The answer to the question, "What's happening to the standards project organized by the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)?" is that the project is going forward. Though its federal sponsors rejected it in the fall and winter of 1993-94, the project is continuing under the…

Although both literary study and discourse analysis examine texts and oral discourses, literary study tends to emphasize the totality of the text while discourse analysis seeks to isolate manageable elements and structures to validate hypotheses about mental processes. Interaction has recently occurred between the two disciplines in…

Aims to conceptualize issues of text selection and censorship in different terms from those in which it has been constructed by Australian media. Asks how texts get used in classrooms and about the nature of classrooms as sites for negotiating issues of meaning and value. Argues for a culturally inclusive curriculum that is responsive to students'…