Engaging the methodology of poetic inquiry, this paper explores both the teaching and learning of poetry. Through a combination of interpretation and reflection, the reader embarks on a journey from the author's childhood experiences with poetry to the experiences of her students in an ELA class. Pinar's method of currere provides a lens to…

My thoughts on the question of 'Textuality as the Centre of English' were presented at a Roundtable session at the 2020 International Federation for the Teaching of English (IFTE) Conference. Through critical discourse analysis of media and curriculum texts, I highlight how the 'being' of the English subjects is always and already textual in…

Generative AI has prompted educators to reevaluate traditional teaching and assessment methods. This study examines AI's ability to write essays analysing Old English poetry; human markers assessed and attempted to distinguish them from authentic analyses of poetry by first-year undergraduate students in English at the University of Oxford. Using…

This conceptual paper examines the possibilities for restorying the self through drama conventions using narrative poetry as a stimulus. Using the poem "The Terrorist, He's Watching" by Wislawa Szymborska to engage with drama conventions, we illustrate how educators might support young and marginalised people to participate in the…

This arts-based research explores the place of creativity in the lives of a focus group of teachers of English in an English secondary school who work within an increasingly performative educational system. As well as interrogating the place of creativity in their lives, the study explores how found poetry can be used as a research method to…

This paper considers Daljit Nagra's engagement with concepts of canon and tradition in "British Museum" (2017). Throughout the collection, Nagra provides readers with a multifaceted insight into the ways in which a plurality of 'cultures' and 'traditions' -- literary, historical, political, religious -- inform contemporary notions of…

This paper reflects on the teaching of the unseen poetry element of the English Literature GCSE in 2022. It explores the author's reflections on the successes and limitations of using a less structured approach with a single Year 11 class, concluding that the pedagogies outlined were more successful than previous iterations in terms of pupil…

In considering how to bring joy back to education and the curriculum in England, I argue that it is also necessary to bring the joy of teaching back to classroom practitioners. A fundamental contribution to this may be leadership typologies employed by schools' senior leadership. As an experienced secondary English teacher, over the last 20 years…

This study investigates the interpretive approaches of three English teachers working in different grade levels with the same poem, Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." The researcher sought to learn what the teachers identified as most valuable about studying poetry in school, what interpretive approaches they employed…

After several years of tweaking the protocols for a student- led poetry project, the call for this issue prompted the author to share what she and her students have learned and are still learning about reading poetry. This includes a now- eighth- grade student, Grace. Grace considers herself a "good" student, eager to learn, but she also…

A significant body of research highlights the rich linguistic and cultural experiences offered by spoken word poetry when integrated into English pedagogy, particularly through its fusion of written and performative modes and its opportunities for cultivating empathy and creativity. However, few studies have examined secondary English teachers'…

This paper considers alternative ways of teaching Romantic poetry to post-sixteen English Literature pupils in England. It explores how practitioners can value tangents developed by pupils' independent thinking when pupils are given the freedom to develop their own ideas. It reflects on a lesson planned to respond to a tangent developed by the…

This essay explores an English lesson I taught to a Year 9 class in which students drew upon and narrativised personal experiences. I describe and examine the literary sociability of the lesson, by which I mean the social and cultural exchanges that give shape to students' reading and writing. In doing so, I demonstrate the need for policymakers…

What do we see when we observe an excellent English lesson? What's going on in the room? Perhaps what stands out is a collaborative making of meanings inspired by stimulating texts. Perhaps what's most important is an ever-deepening knowledge about, and facility with, the many ways that language works. Maybe what we're seeing is a carefully…

The purpose of this study was to consider the issue of "authentic engagement" with texts in the context of KS3 and KS4 classroom English teaching. This article describes an exemplar session on the poem "A Fine Romance" by Roger McGough designed to elicit authentic engagement and provoke personal responses, and reports on the…