A considerable body of global educational literature has examined how schooling policy based on measuring and managing performance has narrowed children's access both to curriculum breadth and to diversity in pedagogy. This article approaches these curriculum dilemmas within the global concern for children's wellbeing and social justice. In…

Although "VCE English Language (EL)" has been offered for twenty years in Victoria, Australia, the subject, and especially students' experience of it, has had little evaluation. Using data from four surveys conducted across seven years with over 1500 Unit 3-4 "EL" students, augmented by VCAA enrolment data, a profile of…

In this paper we take on Green's (2017) orientation of the Australian Curriculum: English and consider what might it hold for the students of Australia. We set about analysing eighteen minutes of storytelling by a group of young 9-12 year old Kunibídji males from Maningrida in the far North of the Northern Territory in Australia, making this…

This article investigates the perceptions and lived experience of practising middle years' and pre-service teachers of English in their efforts to make sense of, and use metacognition. The investigation focuses on metacognition as a means to enhance student learning by fostering self-awareness of their students' thinking as they engage in reading,…

This paper provides a description of practice outlining changes made to English assessment structures for the purpose of facilitating improved teaching and learning. These changes, which included marking, feedback, reporting, and the evaluation of the efficacy of teaching, were implemented across Years 7 to 10 English classes in an independent…

Despite an increasing international trend towards integrating linguistics into the mainstream English curriculum, many teachers struggle to find exciting and relevant ways to cover this material with their students. In this article, we describe how nicknames collected as part of a research study of Australian secondary students can be used as a…

Starting with the writer's own experience as a reader, this article discusses poetry by Eric Roach, Derek Walcott, Linton Kwesi Johnson, John Agard, Edward Baugh, Michael Smith and Velma Pollard. It explores the sense of place felt by writer and reader, going on to analyse the poets' use of Nation Language, poetic metre and intertextuality in…

The global neoliberal context and the emergence of new forms of 'governance by numbers' is now recognized as a ubiquitous educational phenomenon. In this context, large-scale assessments such as are used to justify marketised ideals of education that rely on comparison by numbers. In Australia, one of the key arguments for large scale standardised…

Drawing on observational evidence of two classes working on "Romeo and Juliet," one in England and the other in Palestine, this essay explores the nature of knowledge in relation to English as a school subject. It asserts the importance of paying attention to the resources that students, situated in culture and history, bring with them…

Focusing on the creative writing of Year 6 boys as they make the transition to Year 7, this article establishes a theoretical model for creative writing as response. In line with Bakhtin's notion of utterances as 'interpersonal' (1986), the model demonstrates the complexity of creative writing -- the text is influencing of and influenced by an…

Describes part of a project that investigated pupils' attitudes to National Curriculum core and foundation subjects at Key Stage 3 during 1993 and 1994 in a range of schools across South Wales. Reports that English remains very popular (second only to physical education) among boys and girls, though particularly among girls. (TB)

Reports a survey of British middle-school teachers that supports recent British studies on teacher attitudes acknowledging the importance of poetry instruction and attributing reluctance to teach poetry to teacher lack of confidence and knowledge. Recommends promoting middle-school students' untapped interest in poetry through changes in the…