Literature is an enduring and distinctive component in English education and reading is central to teachers' conception of the subject. What continues to be contentious are the ways literature is defined and how teachers' values influence what their students will read. This paper is drawn from a larger research study and reports 18 New South Wales…

Subject English is a knowledge structure that is hard to discern for many students and even teachers. The abstractions that underpin analysis and interpretation of texts can be fuzzy, even invisible. Furthermore, traditional knowledge is inadequate when it comes to websites, graphic novels and films. What guiding abstractions are relevant in…

Many studies have reported the disruption and anxiety associated with initial teacher education programs across the world lurching in and out of online and remote teaching because of COVID-19 related lockdowns. Few studies, however, have homed in on the day-to-day experiences of teacher educators in particular disciplinary specialisms or…

This paper draws from an international case study of secondary English teachers in New South Wales, Australia and England, in which thirty-three in-depth interviews were conducted. The research investigated the impact of educational reform on teachers' professionalism, their pedagogies and their beliefs about the subject of English. It reports on…

In currently dominant accounts, English as a school subject, its content and processes, are construed as an induction into a well-defined, already-established disciplinary discourse or set of discourses. In an attempt to challenge this version of English, I present some examples of autobiographical writing by secondary students and I tell the…

Around the world attacks are being made on English as a degree subject because in neoliberal terms it is perceived as not leading to graduate level employment. The evidence is clear that this is not true, certainly in England, which is the focus of this article: English graduates go into professional and well-paid careers; some of course become…

The development of curriculum requires dialogue with both past and future. As the state of Victoria gears up to revise the current study design for Literature, one of three 'Englishes' students can study at senior levels, numbers of students opting to take the subject have dropped over recent years. With high-stakes exam-based assessment dominant,…

Disruptions to learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been one of the most concerning consequences of school closures in Australia during 2020. Carefully planned curriculum sequences and learning progressions were flipped into online formats, with teachers having very little time to prepare and students being unused to learning away from each…

This article reports on the effective use of short videos as part of a microlearning strategy aimed at improving student success and satisfaction in an undergraduate literary history course at Flinders University. Although the pedagogical tenets of microlearning ostensibly contradict the deep, sustained critical attention literary study typically…

This essay seeks to recognise the value in a literature-focused model of the discipline of English, using I.A. Richards, C.K. Ogden and the American New Critics as models of critics who placed the text, and the reader's relationship with the text, at the centre of any study of literature, arguing that this relationship is analogous to that which…

This paper reports on the text selections of two English teachers from different schools in New South Wales, Australia who participated in a larger research study that explored the decision-making of teachers planning for and teaching Stage 5 (Years 9 and 10) English. The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon these teachers' reasons for…

Creativity is integral to the inquiry process. Inquiry-based work highlights students' understanding of the ways that literature and language mediate lived experiences and social relationships. Within the secondary English classroom, students and teachers can engage in collaborative and imaginative activities to read texts, ask questions, and…

Psychological trauma is swiftly becoming one of the most significant public health concerns and obstacles to effective education in the current teaching climate. This paper responds to my experiences as both a secondary English teacher and registered psychologist, examining the potential utility of trauma literature in the English classroom for…

In this reflection I discuss my experiences teaching E. M. Forster's canonical novel "The Longest Journey" (1907) to third-year university students. I argue that there are a multitude of benefits in employing queer pedagogies for teaching English. I consider how queer pedagogies might go beyond questions of representations and visibility…

Hattie and Timperley's (2007) model of effective feedback, widely used in teacher professional development, provides an easily-applied framework for thinking about the information contained in feedback. However, the model simplifies a complex phenomenon shaped in practice by interpersonal, disciplinary and institutional aspects. Examining the…