This article aims to introduce Ernst Cassirer, and his philosophy of symbolic form, to education studies, and, in doing so, to challenge the widespread but deeply flawed views of knowledge and so-called knowledge-based education that have shaped recent education policy in England. After sketching the current educational landscape, and then some of…

Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (1610-1611) is one of the controversial plays regarding whether to be placed in the purview of colonialism or anti-colonialism. The bard sketches two antithetical characters in the course of the play, Prospero and Caliban, who form the two extremes of the self against the other dichotomy. This study aims at…

This study focuses on the effectiveness of the Learn Social online platform on the speaking skills of English Literature 2018 students of University of Sumatera Utara. The purpose of this research is to know if the Learn Social online platform is effective in improving the speaking skills of students of English Literature 2018, at the University…

Shakespeare's elite cultural status bolsters the sense of achievement and empowerment experienced by participants in prison performance programmes; and yet, such engagements paradoxically risk further marginalising participants by reinforcing a colonial mentality in which Shakespeare represents an offering from a morally superior white culture.…

Qualitative practitioner research undertaken by teachers in schools is a vital means of developing pedagogy and practice, one that is under-valued in today's educational climate. This essay explores representations of students in qualitative studies, which, I argue, necessarily transform student participants into 'characters' within the…

The British government's current educational policy for England draws on E.D. Hirsch's writings on 'cultural literacy'. This paper aims to uncover the roots of Hirsch's influential views through a genealogical critique. Hirsch admired the Scottish Enlightenment educator Hugh Blair as a model architect of a hegemonic culture to unite disparate…

Grounded within the tenets of culturally responsive education, this qualitative case study examined the culturally responsive instructional practices of teachers working with linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse students in sheltered English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms that mainly serve English language learners in an urban high…

Character education through curriculum subjects has taken increasing political importance in England after its inclusion in the school inspection framework. Here we present a pedagogical approach to developing virtue literacy through English Literature. As part of a longitudinal, mixed-methods research project, this article uses empirical evidence…

In teaching poetry, one of the first problems to be addressed is the lack of appropriate schemata when studying English and American poetic texts. The current study inquires about the students' perception regarding how Saudi students perceive the relationship between the lack of appropriate schemata and the comprehension of English and American…

Literature has been gaining growing attention in second language (L2)/foreign language (FL) education globally. In a number of places such as Hong Kong, literature has recently been given greater emphasis in the L2/FL curricula. This article reports part of a large-scale study examining learners' views of two English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL)…

The problem of reconstructing the conceptual content of Shakespeare's tragedies in chronologically distant Ukrainian translations is solved in the article by applying the method of complex poetical and cognitive analysis, which provides for research in two directions: genre -- text -- language (from the general characteristics of Shakespeare's…

This study explored the transition to university as experienced by first-year students of English studies. The first year has been identified by existing research as a critical time for new students in terms of their persistence and success on their degree programme. However, there is a need for further research in the current UK higher education…

In this essay, I share reflections on what it meant to teach my book of poetry in an introductory English literature class. The book took inspiration from the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, particularly his studies on encountering the other person. Engaging with this text (both the poetry and the philosophy), I consider some of the nuances of a…

English teaching that satisfies curricula standards has often been siloed from instruction that advances the goals of social justice. Exasperated teachers may feel they can either meet the day-to-day demands of their profession or teach to dismantle social inequities, but not achieve the aims of both approaches. In this reflective practitioner…

This article, drawing on essays written by students with the assistance of ChatGPT and interviews with some students who used this learning machine, highlights a shift in the educational landscape brought about by this technology. In broader terms, Palestinian universities follow the traditional methods of teaching based on memorization and rote…