The Great Tradition of Texts: How to Break the Mould? A Study of English Education in Australia & England

In both Australia and England, English is the common subject for all students. This fact presents particular challenges to curriculum developers. For example, it is a vexed question considering how to select texts that will be of relevance and interest to students from the culturally diverse backgrounds now resident in both countries. Presently, secondary English curricula in Australia and England determine that senior students will read and interpret meanings in texts while learning about different cultural groups in society. This research explores the current challenges inherent in the selection and teaching of prescribed English texts to contemporary students. Four areas of English education are explored; curriculum, prescribed texts, pedagogical methods and students’ responses to the selection and teaching of English texts in secondary classrooms to contemporary students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This research hypothesises that a postcolonial theoretical approach might be beneficial when selecting and teaching English texts, as it has the potential to accommodate broader interpretations and perceptions of culture in both traditional and newer texts, and to facilitate discussions of cultural issues such as ethnicity, social class and gender. The sample includes both academically high- and lower-performing schools in England and Australia. Students’ responses to the English texts they are required to study at schools are collected and analysed to discern the extent to which they find these texts appealing or useful when making comparisons of cultural issues in texts to those in current society. To understand the processes of facilitating both curriculum and texts by educators in schools, I probe the main pedagogical issues encountered by teachers when mediating topics raised by these texts to engage students in conversations about cultural differences. Preliminary investigations revealed that the extant lists of prescribed texts in both curricula are dated and infrequently revised, albeit not necessarily to incorporate new or culturally diverse texts. In essence, this research compares the process and rationale used by two examination boards (Board of Studies, New South Wales and the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) in matching learning aims with English texts; it maps existing patterns for repeating texts on reading lists

Communiversity: Values in Action Project 2020–2022

The Communiversity project grew out of the creative dialogue of a collection of like-minded colleagues at a Cathedrals Group sponsored Sandpit event held at York St John in 2019. In Phase 1 University of Cumbria, led a scoping exercise, which explored the range of community engagement/ volunteering projects taking place in the respective Cathedrals Groups universities (Hempsall and Elton-Chalcraft, 2019) Phase 2, ‘The Communiversity: Values in Action’ began in 2020. Having gained funding from the Church Universities fund to build on Phase 1, four collaborating universities each initiated new, or selected ongoing, community engagement / volunteering projects to investigate. With a more diverse, inclusive, outward facing approach to study and learning outcomes or ‘learning gain’ in Higher Education, the concept of ‘The Communiversity: Values in Action’ has brought about a meta-reflexive approach (Archer, 2010) to university experience. It encourages stakeholders to reframe their actions in terms of ‘the bigger picture’ and to broaden the sphere of university activity and knowledge exchange (KE) beyond the campus towards ‘service learning’, benefiting the community (Bamber, Bullivant and Stead, 2013). This involves ‘breaking down the walls of the academy to let scholarship out and invite communities in’ (Lessem, Adodo and Bradley, 2019)

Desperate shadows of 'Belonging': Revealing pedagogical issues with teaching prescribed English texts in the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC)

As New South Wales (NSW) bids farewell to the 2009–2014 Area of Study concept ‘Belonging’, this article summarises some critical reflections from English teachers on the main pedagogical issues encountered when using prescribed texts to teach ‘Be

Too pale and stale: prescribed texts used for teaching culturally diverse students in Australia and England

How are English texts selected to teach students from culturally diverse backgrounds in Australia and England? The English curricula in both countries aim for students to read and interpret meanings through texts, while learning about their culture, and that of cultural others. However, the current list of prescribed texts in both curricula are dated and are not frequently changed, nor are new culturally diverse and contemporary texts easily added to reading lists. This makes some curriculum aims difficult to achieve if students are disengaged or do not relate to the content or themes in the prescribed texts. This article proposes that a post-colonial theoretical approach be considered when selecting texts to teach contemporary students from diverse cultural backgrounds. A post-colonial approach does not mean selecting post-colonial texts, or texts that address post-colonial themes, but is rather a method of selecting and comparing literature of any genre that engages with historical and contemporary issues, with particular focus on race, social class and gender. A post-colonial approach would mean that culturally diverse students may better engage with discussions of contemporary issues using a wider range of texts in classrooms