Exploring Australian school text censorship has a long pedigree in "English in Australia." This article aims to contribute by observing attempts by parents to censor English texts in religious schools. A brief summary of "EIA"'s previous approaches is followed by an explanation of the method of my research with NSW…

While the essay is the default assessment tool of the Humanities in upper secondary and tertiary education, it is a text type that has been slowly bled of communicative purpose. It is suffered by students, taught according to restrictive formula and ignored in the literature. Evidence from the tertiary sector, employers and public examinations…

Digital reading technologies may be intuitively appealing. They offer many possibilities, including great potential for interactivity around books, portability of whole libraries in one small reading unit, and almost instant satisfaction of demand for a particular book. Though there is limited research exploring the appeal of digital reading for…

This paper suggests how the "weird fiction" of H.P. Lovecraft might be mobilised within secondary English classrooms to examine aspects of visual literacy, literary style, narrative form and intertextuality. The approach that is outlined is characterised, after Lovecraft's famous monster, as a "Cthulhuic literacy" and is…

This paper discusses a research project undertaken to examine teachers' perceptions of creative writing in the senior English curriculum. It was a case study undertaken in a state high school in Melbourne under the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). The project investigated the challenges facing English teachers as they prepare…

Garth Boomer's ideas in "Negotiating the Curriculum" (1992a) resonate with discussions of shifting teacher and student roles and relationships in the "student voice" movement. Boomer (1988) critiqued his earlier conception of power in "Negotiating the Curriculum," asserting that he would "now like to write a…

This article is based on the authors' own experience of Garth Boomer as a splendid friend, a superb colleague, and an inspirational leader. In September 2005 the author was invited to deliver the Garth Boomer Memorial Lecture at the Biennial International Conference of the Australian Curriculum Studies Association (ACSA). This article is…

This essay explores the role that storytelling might play in the professional learning of English teachers. It begins by reflecting on the ways that stories shape our everyday lives, and then considers how the meaning-making potential of storytelling might enable us to gain insights into our work as educators. This is in contradistinction to the…

Young adult literature is a tool of socialisation and acculturation for young readers. This extends to endowing "reading" with particular significance in terms of what literature should be read and why. This paper considers some recent young adult fiction with an eye to its engagement with canonical literature and its representations of…

This paper draws on a case study undertaken by an English teacher in a rural school with a Year 12 English class, most of whom had been singularly unsuccessful in terms of NCEA achievement. The case study was undertaken as part of a two-year project, directed by the first author, entitled: "Teachers as writers: Transforming professional identity…

This paper reflects one cycle of an action research project that investigated how integrating activity, competition, and visual learning strategies through IWB/ Smart Response technology could engage a lower level Year 12 Advanced English class in NSW--a group of boys who felt disconnected from the course of study. After my initial reconnaissance…

Contemporary curriculum guidelines, such as those provided in the incoming Australian curriculum, call for English to attend to multimodal forms of text and literacy as well as more traditional forms. Students are expected to become capable and critical readers, users and creators of texts and forms of literacy that span everything from newspapers…

This study explored English teachers' perspectives on the influences on their print text choices for study by Year 8, 9 and 10 students at three Christian schools in Perth, Western Australia (WA). A multiple-site case study was used to understand the phenomenon. Three teachers were selected at each school and data were collected through…

This article is based on a qualitative study that explored the impact reading had on the lives of two female students who attained exemplary results in their final year of high school. The reading practices of these two high achieving students provided data rich information. Both students were academically successful in completing their Victorian…

The benefits of playwriting as a process for students are yet to be fully understood. While there is scarce research on playwriting pedagogy, the research that does exist suggests that playwriting provides several benefits for students relating to self-esteem, literacy and language development, as well as increased engagement in school and the…