This qualitative Action Research study explores a group of lower secondary pupils' use of social semiotic resources and traditional and digital tools to develop an understanding of "Romeo and Juliet" at a private trilingual school in Barcelona. Forming part of a wider study undertaken by an English language and literature teacher, it…

As university teachers of literature, we tend to accept the rhetoric that students lack the capacity to interpret texts meaningfully, without questioning our own biases about the kinds of meaning we expect them to elicit from texts. Often, these are meanings that have little relevance to students' own social or professional lives. In this article,…

In this paper, we report data from the first national survey of secondary Shakespeare teaching in the UK, conducted online in 2017-18 with a sample of 211 teachers distributed throughout Wales, England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. In this article, we outline the pedagogical practices which are dominant. Specifically, we examine the group of…

Teacher-researcher, Katherine Macro spent six weeks observing an eleventh-grade Advanced Placement and Composition class at Sunnybrooke Central High School to examine the teacher's use of creative drama to teach Shakespeare. In this article, Macro describes ways the instructor used theater-based instructional strategies, especially a staged…

For the last several years, teacher-researchers Jessica Jasper, Laura Dvorak, Steven Athanases, and Sergio Sanchez have partnered with a program called Globe Education, Shakespeare's Globe London. Practitioners in the program use teaching practices that engage learners with Shakespeare's works and other complex texts through drama practices. Jess…

Attempting to teach theater in an English Literature course is a daunting prospect. A far cry from the highly individual experience of reading a novel or poem, theater is both a visual and communal kind of engagement. It is a challenge to capture this medium in a traditional lecture-based classroom and harder still to convey its…

This paper delves into the intricate realm of Shakespearean characters in love, employing a psychoanalytical lens to unravel the depths of their emotions, desires, and conflicts. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories, particularly those of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, this paper aims to dissect the subconscious motivations and psychological…

In this paper, I reflect on a series of lectures, underpinned by the principles of critical pedagogy, when engaging with Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Working with student teachers in a South African School of Education, I used a talk-back design to enable students to talk back to the canon and open the dialogue about resistance. I used…

This article explores the notion of eros and education by turning to erotic literature: specifically, Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost." In this early play, Shakespeare portrays a sophisticated Renaissance world in which the conventions of literary education overtly affirm and celebrate eros whilst covertly denying its relational and…

Our paper seeks to investigate how mediation using emerging technologies can increase student engagement within the context of teaching English Literature in Singapore. Through a discussion of our ongoing project to create an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" as an animated game in virtual reality, we focus upon the…

This essay analyzes student experiences of studying all-female and non-binary cast Shakespeare productions in the Seattle area, including upstart crow collective's "Richard III" and The Fern Shakespeare Company's "Much Ado About Nothing." I draw on my teaching of the experimental work of these regional companies in an…

This article investigates the teaching of rhetoric as a discrete discipline within the curriculum of Tudor-era English grammar schools (such as the King's New Grammar School in Stratford-Upon-Avon, where William Shakespeare is believed to have been educated). It examines more recent attempts to advocate for the value of rhetoric as a unifying…

Most students meet Shakespeare in middle or high school, on a page in a book in an English classroom. This first encounter is a disservice to the students themselves and to Shakespeare: Shakespeare's plays are works of both literature and theatre, and should be taught as such. A performance-based teaching approach not only provides high school…

Active learning challenges students to learn through experience and reflection on what they have done (Frost, Levitt, and Kosslyn 2017). As this pedagogy has developed, the principles have been useful in teaching a variety of subjects. This paper discusses research from many disciplines and observations from sixteen years of working with secondary…

This exploratory practice study examined the effectiveness of film adaptation in teaching a Shakespearean play, "The Merchant of Venice," during the fall semester of 2022 at the Higher Institute of Languages, Gabès. Qualitative and quantitative data from third-year students majoring in English language, literature, and civilization, as…