This paper considers the research evidence-base informing teaching practice and policy in subject English in schools. We explore the "Australian Journal of English Education," the flagship research publication from the Australian Association of Teachers of English, at a time when an evidence-base is in high demand. Our aim is to…

Secondary school English is shaped not only by complex institutional and discursive forces but also by the mundane reality of available resources. Among the resources used by teachers are commercial textbooks. Classroom textbooks can play a significant role in determining what gets taught in English lessons. They can also influence assumptions…

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…

Read and admired throughout the world, Shakespeare's plays and poetry have been the guiding light of statesmen, of authors, and of artists. His writings are the indispensable foundation for understanding English literature, language, and rhetoric. Yet less than 8% of the nation's top universities require English majors to take even a single course…

Many of the rules in The Elements of Style, the classic text on English usage for writers, are also useful rules for teaching. While these rules are not all that is needed for good teaching, they are helpful for enhancing classroom instructions.

Describes how the writing lives of professional authors can provide excellent models of writing for both teachers and students. Shows how different writers use very different processes in producing their texts. Considers how writers choose topics for writing and how they utilize childhood and teenage memories. (HB)

Discusses the career and achievement of the British writer Matthew Arnold. Focuses on Arnold's status as a symbol of conservatism in the current culture wars. Argues for a recuperation of a true representation of Arnold's achievement. Illustrates the dangers of misrepresenting major literary figures invoked in cultural disputes. (HB)

Gives a report on the activities of the ALAN workshop at the 1991 convention of the National Council of Teachers of English. Briefly discusses the activities of 14 young adult authors at the conference who shared the backgrounds for their novels. (HB)

Presents the responses of numerous professional writers to the question, "What did you do on your summer vacation?" (HB)

Considers the role of the visiting writer in encouraging and supplying useful writing advice to student writers. Proposes some principles for the art of writing that writers offer composition students, especially related to the art of writing over its craft. (HB)

Considers what makes up the sensibilities and personal traits of a writer. Describes how one writer learned to express herself through a particular writing workshop. Outlines the reasons writers write and lists some tricks of the trade. (HB)

Describes the sensibilities and temperament that make a successful, daily writer. Questions why writers write. Attempts to define what it is that makes a writer write. (HB)

Questions the death of the author and of authority and, by implication, the theoretical erasure of the authority that constitutes the student writers that teachers face in the classroom everyday. Proposes a dialogic model of authority that infuses authority with an "ethic of care." (HB)

Discusses the poststructural impulse to displace authority over texts and their meanings from the author. Questions whether poststructuralists practice an anti-intentionalist impersonalism regarding their own writings. Describes the reactions of Jacques Derrida to readings of his own work by other critics. (HB)

Discusses the findings of an extensive research study of the authors and writing most frequently assigned in college-level English survey courses. Finds that similar historical periods and authors are considered in the survey courses offered by college and university English departments. Finds that traditional authors continue to be taught in…