Contends that play scripts are written to be performed and that a critical response to a play should reflect the fact that the script is a blueprint for a live happening. Proposes that students need to study a play both in the theatre and as written text. Explores aspects of Shakespeare's plays as performed theatrical works. (PM)

Explains that throughout the past one hundred years, the question of how Shakespeare plays should be taught has been a point of contention in the New South Wales secondary English curriculum. Outlines the two main stances, the traditional literature-based approach and the active approach with emphasis on the text as play script. Discusses the…

Explores the largely unexamined years of English teaching between the 1910s and 1960s in Australia in order to supplement available forms of English curriculum history. Contends that an examination of teacher training curriculum and materials for this period would provide a useful way of further investigating the kind of English "subject" being…

Explores a curricular framework for teaching and learning in schools by reconceptualizing the following ideas as a series of metaphors: for the teaching/learning process; for the roles taken by teachers and students; and for the curriculum as a whole. Contends that to return to a sense of what education could be, educators will have to change…

Discusses what a month-long seminar on English teaching in Dartmouth in 1966 accomplished and failed to accomplish. Outlines its stance on integrated activities and assessment. Notes questions not raised at the seminar, by default or inevitability. Proposes new questions and possibilities since Dartmouth. (PM)

Discusses the author's reactions to a questionnaire about assumptions and practices that define "English education." Lists the author's preferred texts, important figures, and ideas for college courses. Defines English education as an applied area of study that draws together knowledge and techniques, theory and content from areas such as…

Discusses what English is for in the era of globalization. Explains new tasks for English; English in the era of information and communication; and aesthetics, ethics, and texts as the purposes of English. Concludes that a rich version of English is the subject which still mediates understandings of taste, in its multiple and various textual…

Addresses whether English teaching has a literacy project of its own. Discusses a holistic, integrated view of literacy as comprising three interlocking dimensions: operational, cultural, and critical. Suggests English teaching should engage with philosophy, the humanities, and the arts. Proposes that educators need to develop a better…

Notes that contemporary debates about the place of English in the secondary curriculum are fueled by two concerns: the perceived need for greater vocationalism in school curricula and anxieties about students' literacy levels. Proposes that English teachers are particularly subject to the conflicting demands made upon schools by governments,…

Discusses accounts of classroom practices which draw on socially critical literacy approaches. Outlines how the author was able to work in partnership with an academic mentor in the implementation of a unit of work on Advertising. Notes that what made this unit distinctively English was that a "culture of critique" was established which gave the…

Addresses that distinctive contribution of English to the development of students' literate capabilities as they progress through the years of schooling. Develops a framework for thinking about the nature of knowledges and the repertoires of literate practice made available to students of the English classroom. Explains different understandings…

Outlines outcomes of a survey which invited Australian Head Teachers of English to identify the major strengths and challenges of new Stage 6 Higher School Certificate courses. Reveals that teachers see the great potential for their students to be challenged and enthused by the courses. Notes significant anxiety and lack of assurance among…

Explores how to use computers more effectively to enhance the learning process. Describes results of a survey given to Australian secondary students about classroom computer use. Suggests that more use be made of e-mail as a communication and learning tool. Proposes that teachers become more proactive in explaining to students and developing with…

Reviews the 1991 position paper on the teaching of English by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE). Notes the paper reads like an old-fashioned manifesto from an era of homogenized assumptions. Suggests a new paper should endorse the primacy of professional knowledge of English teachers in determining what should be…

Gives an account of Gail Reynolds's experience in administrating the DART (Developmental assessment resource for teachers) and AIM (Achievement improvement monitor) tests at her school. Reflects on how the test results compared with her own judgments of the literacy abilities of individual students in her class. Offers four case studies that draw…