Transition programs can be useful if the students can quickly find some stability in their relationship to the official structures of the school. This can be provided through teachers, whom they see often; through classroom activities; through class excursions; and through extracurricular activities, such as a school camp. (HOD)

Laments the misguided teaching practices used in the teaching of language and literature, practices reflecting unsatisfactory, superficial, and mechanical educational standards. (RL)

Explores the relationship between teaching English and psychotherapy, and suggests that English teachers should think of themselves as therapists who are helping their students toward personal growth and values clarification. (RL)

Outlines the author's history as an English teacher. Suggests that English teaching is not hermetic but profoundly influenced by educational trends outside the subject itself. Explains that the author's commitment to English combines a sense of engagement with a sense of liberation. (PM)

Explores a curricular framework for teaching and learning in schools by reconceptualizing the following ideas as a series of metaphors: for the teaching/learning process; for the roles taken by teachers and students; and for the curriculum as a whole. Contends that to return to a sense of what education could be, educators will have to change…

Discusses the author's reactions to a questionnaire about assumptions and practices that define "English education." Lists the author's preferred texts, important figures, and ideas for college courses. Defines English education as an applied area of study that draws together knowledge and techniques, theory and content from areas such as…

Discusses what English is for in the era of globalization. Explains new tasks for English; English in the era of information and communication; and aesthetics, ethics, and texts as the purposes of English. Concludes that a rich version of English is the subject which still mediates understandings of taste, in its multiple and various textual…

Addresses the tension between the two assessment goals of measurement and instruction and how they relate to standardized testing in general. Suggests that this tension is writ large in Australia's current literacy-policy environment, with the scales tipping to the measurement goal. Argues that these goals need to be aligned in the best interests…

Questions whether a framework such as STELLA (Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia) can capture the essence of what teachers do in the classroom. Addresses three animating passions which have informed and energized the author's work as a teacher: intensity, empathy, and gaiety. (RS)

Discusses an attempt by a group of Australian primary and secondary teachers to address the issue of school literacy practices during the transition years (Years 5-8). Suggests attempts to support student learning were both supported and circumscribed by the school context. Notes any notion of professional engagement to bring about lasting change…

Explores the professional and intellectual tensions in teaching English in recent times, focusing on Victoria, Australia. Argues that in the past few years all English teachers have been obliged to resist pressures toward reductive versions of literacy. Illustrates some specific literacy practices in secondary English classrooms which seek to…

Looks at the kinds of texts teachers are using in their 7-10 English classes, how teachers approach these texts with students, and how students experience this kind of school work. Sees significance in teaching texts by looking at the way teachers and students approach Shakespeare. Considers different ways of teaching Shakespeare and discusses…

Presents two critical incidents about boys seated at the back of the classroom. Draws attention to how particular versions of masculinity influence how boys learn to relate and the possibilities for interrogating these kinds of masculinities in the English classroom. Explores what role already existing reading practices within English might play…

Sketches an alternative, or perhaps an addition, to critical analysis and personal response. Notes the approach is historical and intertextual. Demonstrates this method using the popular television series "The X-Files." Shows how a description of a text can be built up through various kinds of research. Argues that historical and…

Reviews some of the conceptions about boys, masculinity and English that are to be found in the academic literature, before going on to discuss the media constructions of the issues at stake (and why these are problematic). Describes some of the expected and counter-expectational findings that arose from a study of a Year 8 coeducational English…