Factors leading to successful professional learning communities (PLCs) have been widely discussed in the West, but little is known about how/whether teachers' beliefs contribute to PLCs in the Chinese context. This qualitative case study aimed to investigate teachers' beliefs about teacher learning in PLCs and their influence on collegial learning…

Using the case of a secondary English department in Ontario, Canada, this article examines the constraints that academic departments face in transforming themselves from communities of practice into learning communities. This distinction between a community of practice and a learning community has taken on heightened importance as increasing…

Undertaken during a period when changes in the assessment of English in public examinations at 16+ were becoming embedded in classroom practice, this comparative research explores where poetry is located within the newly aligned examination assessment frameworks of New Zealand and England. It comments on how these frameworks are locally…

Asserts that William Wordsworth's poetry influenced teacher training for British educators and promoted the development of the English Department. Notes several legislative measures that played a role in English curricula. Concludes that current pedagogic studies make academic practice assumptions based on historic precedence dating back to…

Undertakes research into tension between structural planning and individual autonomy in the teaching of English and the dynamics of English departmental work in secondary schools. Examines the nature of constraints to individuals' autonomy, such as the British National Curriculum, to arrive at tentative conclusions as to whether they constitute a…

Follows up on a Williamson and Fitz-Gibbon article (1990) focusing on the impact of a performance indicator project, COMBSE (Confidential Measurement Based Self-Evaluation), on secondary school English departments. This article describes COMBSE's metamorphosis into another system, ALIS (A Level Information System), that has transcended the…

Presents six narratives from teachers including: "VCE English at Lilydale High School" (Valerie Mayer); "Should 'I' Be Their Teacher" (Mark Matcott); "Teaching Poetry to Year 7 English Students" (Janet Lyons); "Creative Art Therapy and Mandalas" (Demi Flessa); "Would the 'Real' Teacher Please Stand…

This research is a narrative analysis based on an investigation into the professional lives of heads of English Departments (HODs) in three New Zealand secondary schools. The main data collection methods of interviews and observations used in this study fall within an interpretive paradigm. While HODs play a pivotal role in secondary schools,…

Noting that the achievements of boys have been the subject of growing concern in England for a number of years, this booklet indicates some ways to improve the achievement of boys in literacy. The booklet focuses on work in secondary schools and is based on visits to 14 mixed secondary schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas. It begins with a…

This study investigated the effect of a set of predictors of success in both the undergraduate English program and in all other subjects. Academic data for the graduates of an Arab university's English department during three years were analyzed. The predictor variables examined were: (1) total scores on the secondary school certificate…

This paper describes a student centered, integrated curriculum that was developed at an English comprehensive school for 14- to 18-year-old students and shows how English was taught within this curriculum. Sections of the paper discuss (1) the historical roots of the problem of curriculum organization that the school faced; (2) the organizational…

A survey of science and English teachers in 10 Scottish secondary schools indicated a complex relationship between a teacher's identity as a subject expert, subject department boundaries, and authority relationships. Teachers felt they had little influence on general school policies. (f=fiche numbers). (CP)

This profile in outline form of the English language teaching situation in Tunisia provides a brief survey of the distribution of languages and their use in various domains, and the role of English is described. Statistical information concerning general school enrollment is followed by information summarizing the role of English in secondary…