Most recent papers:

• What would make children read for pleasure more frequently?
  Margaret K Merga.
  English in Education. July 20, 2017
  Regular recreational reading offers benefits across a range of literacy outcomes, as well as supporting learning in other subject areas, offering cognitive benefits, and potentially fostering empathy. Therefore, increasing frequency of engagement in recreational reading can play an important role in addressing inequity in literacy outcomes once independent reading skill has been achieved. While previous studies address how to increase children's engagement in reading for recreation, few allow children's viewpoints to take primacy. The 2016 Western Australian Study in Children's Book Reading collected data from respondents across 24 schools, seeking to determine how educators and parents may best support young people to read with greater frequency. Interview participants from Years 4 and 6 were asked what would make them read more. The five recurring themes of finding engaging books, series adherence, challenge seeking, skill deficit, and time availability indicate optimal avenues for future research and educational intervention to foster increased engagement in reading.

  July 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12143   open full text
• Walking the Streets of London: Using Zadie Smith's ‘NW’ to explore teenage, metropolitan ways of seeing and writing.
  Jonathan Monk.
  English in Education. July 20, 2017
  This teaching and learning investigation draws on two adjacent chapters of Zadie Smith's novel NW (2012). The first chapter delineates one character's journey through north‐west London as plotted by the directions feature of Google Maps, while the next chapter focalises this perspective at street level. Ten classes across three year groups conducted a reading and a writing task based on NW. This task, which linked students’ writing to their own walking in London, was influenced by Harold Rosen's writing pedagogy, which privileges environmental experience as being central to developing student writing. The 190 mappings and street‐level descriptions of walking through London provide a rich portrait of teenage, metropolitan ways of seeing. The findings indicate an intrinsic link between place and memory for many students, while showing that writing about the metropolis invites literary experimentation influenced by recent changes in technology and communication. The investigation offers insight into a teaching strategy that can develop students’ reading and writing skills.

  July 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12142   open full text
• Deconstructing the Divergence: Unravelling the 2013‐2015 reforms in GCSE English Language and Literature.
  Nicholas Stock.
  English in Education. July 20, 2017
  Since 2013, GCSE English Language and Literature courses in England have experienced changes to assessment and curriculum that have ushered them in a supposedly new direction, both under the umbrella of wider GCSE reforms. This divergence has included the abolition of controlled assessment and the concurrent resurgence of academic courses being assessed only by examination. Alongside these changes have been wider reforms to the GCSE system in its totality, with a switch from the typical A* to G grading system to a new 9 to 1 structure. This article is a consideration of these changes and some other caveats of the reform documents released between 2013 and 2015. I am posing this inquiry from my perspective as an English teacher and a poststructuralist, using deconstruction to scrutinise the language in some of the reform documents. Governmental agenda of the reform is explored, demonstrating an archaism to the ‘new’ direction of the GCSE and the hierarchizing of the academic elite in the oppositions presented.

  July 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12140   open full text
• Adolescents' attitudes toward talking about books: Implications for educators.
  Margaret K Merga, Michelle McRae, Leonie Rutherford.
  English in Education. July 12, 2017
  Young people's frequency of engagement in reading books for pleasure markedly decreases as they move through the schooling years, reducing their exposure to this beneficial literacy practice. Young people's perceptions of the value of reading can be socially mediated, and positive perception of the value of reading is associated with frequency of engagement in reading. As such, considering how to generate positive social interactions around reading is an important concern when seeking to increase young people's reading frequency. We sought to investigate adolescents' attitudes toward talking about books in order to identify reasons for engagement in discussion about books, as well as factors that constrained engagement in such discussions, with a view to informing best practice for educators seeking to engage adolescents in reading. The findings suggest that adolescents' enjoyment of discussion about books may be related to common interests, enjoyment of discussion to facilitate critical exploration and comprehension, and the possibilities provided for recommendations and access. Adolescents' interests in and ability to engage in book discussions was shaped by mutual text exposure, opportunity, personal preference, disinterested peers and social status maintenance. Findings are considered in relation to classroom practice; the formation of Special Interest Reading Groups within the classroom is considered.

  July 12, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12144   open full text
• Worlds Apart: a comparative analysis of discourses of English in the curricula of England and Australia.
  Paul D Gardner.
  English in Education. June 02, 2017
  A comparative analysis of English in the primary curricula of England and Australia reveals markedly different policy perspectives of the functions and purposes of language, literacy and literature in these two Anglophone countries. Whilst the Australian curriculum incorporates ‘the basics’ with broader socio‐linguistic views of language in an attempt to construct breadth and balance, the English curriculum is predominantly a didactic adherence to ‘the old basics’. Using discourse and content analysis, a systematic review of the two curricula is undertaken and evaluated by applying Cox's five models of English and Kalantzis et al.'s four paradigms of literacy. The results of this study have important implications for teachers, academics and policy‐makers in all Anglophone countries, especially the two countries that are the focus of the study.

  June 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12138   open full text
• Disrupting Continuities – Re‐thinking Conceptions of ‘Growth’ in English Teaching.
  Paul Tarpey.
  English in Education. April 17, 2017
  In this piece I explore the concept of ‘growth’ in English teaching. Starting with John Dixon's ‘growth’ model, I argue that, by re‐imagining his ideas in current contexts, practitioners might re‐focus and re‐invigorate the priorities of English teaching. Dominant conceptions of ‘growth’ are explored, along with their influence on teacher working cultures and the speech genres they draw on. I argue that, by critically challenging dominant discourses and cultural perspectives, it is possible to generate new narratives and open up new possibilities for the subject.

  April 17, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12129   open full text
• Call for Papers Spring 2019 Special Issue.
  Jenifer Smith, Mari Cruice.
  English in Education. March 16, 2017
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  March 16, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12135   open full text
• The Work of the Course: validity and reliability in assessing English Literature.
  John Hodgson, Bill Greenwell.
  English in Education. March 16, 2017
  This article reflects on the values and practices of a revolutionary UK A level (senior secondary) course that achieved a high degree of validity and reliability in assessing the study of English literature. John Hodgson and Bill Greenwell were involved in its teaching and assessment from an early stage, and Greenwell's comments on an early draft of the article have been incorporated. The practice of literary response enshrined in the course was based on a striking application of “personal response” to literature, gave students opportunities to show capability in studying and writing a range of literary styles and genres, and engaged teachers regionally and nationally in a developed professional community of practice. It remains a touchstone of quality as well as of innovation in English curriculum and assessment.

  March 16, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12132   open full text
• Digital Ensemble: The ENaCT design‐based research framework for technology‐enhanced embodied assessment in English education.
  Eilis Flanagan, Tony Hall.
  English in Education. March 16, 2017
  This article outlines the ENaCT educational design for Digital Ensemble, an innovative approach to English assessment integrating drama pedagogy with mobile computing (e.g. iPad). ENaCT represents the key themes that framed and informed the research: ensemble, narrative, collaboration and technology. Starting with ENaCT as a prototype concept design for the development and evaluation of technology‐enhanced embodied assessment in English, the research developed and refined the model through collaborative cycles of design with post‐primary schools. The design‐based research study reported here was undertaken in three significant design iterations, totalling 15 weeks and 85 teaching hours. 131 Irish Senior Cycle students, aged 15 to 17 participated: 45, 46 and 45 pupils respectively in iterations one, two and three. Two teachers participated throughout. The article outlines for English teachers and educational designers the adaptable ENaCT framework for Digital Ensemble, including design and assessment criteria and evaluation rubrics, illustrated by exemplars of pupils’ work.

  March 16, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12136   open full text
• What does a good one look like? Marking A‐level English scripts in relation to others.
  Victoria Elliott.
  English in Education. March 16, 2017
  This article explores the use of representativeness as a guide to examining at English A‐level through an analysis of two training days on two different modules. Representativeness is a cognitive heuristic which guides decision‐making essentially by asking ‘how much does this example look as if it belongs to this class of things?’ A number of representative characteristics emerged during the training meetings including length, ‘adult’ writing and quality of written communication. The relation between representativeness and the mark scheme is also explored.

  March 16, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12133   open full text
• Assessing reading development through systematic synthetic phonics.
  Jonathan Glazzard.
  English in Education. March 16, 2017
  This narrative literature review evaluates the effectiveness of synthetic phonics in comparison with analytic phonics. It presents the key research findings and offers a critical appraisal of this research. Primary schools have developed a variety of assessment processes which assess pupils’ knowledge and skills in synthetic phonics. It is through using these assessment tools that gaps in pupils’ knowledge and skills are identified and these gaps then form the basis of subsequent synthetic phonics interventions. The article concludes by arguing that a more detailed assessment framework may be required for the purpose of assessing children's reading development than the model which schools currently adopt.

  March 16, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12125   open full text
• So which Gordon Hodgeon are we going to talk about?
  Michael Torbe.
  English in Education. February 02, 2017
  A brief personal summary and reflection on Gordon Hodgeon's career and personality as man, educationalist and poet, together with his impact on people around him.

  February 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/eie.12124   open full text
• A changing assessment landscape in Ireland: the place of oral language.
  Rachel Lenihan, Carmel Hinchion, Pauline Laurenson.
  English in Education. December 27, 2016
  Although not a new discussion in the Irish context, the value of oral language development has recently gained prominence again in Irish Post‐Primary English classrooms. In this article we present how the recent introduction of Junior Cycle English, which now includes an Oral Communication Classroom Based Assessment (CBA) is renewing efforts to promote speaking and listening and has the potential to change teachers’ understanding of assessment in English. The rationale for this change is presented here from the perspectives of the different stakeholders in Irish Education; educational researchers, policymakers, the Inspectorate, teachers and students. To cite the Junior Cycle Framework: ‘until the examination changes, nothing else will’ (NCCA 2011: 6). However, past efforts to implement an oral assessment element illustrate how change is complex and fostering an awareness of the centrality of ‘classroom talk’ involves a cultural shift for the teachers implementing the Junior Cycle English Specification.

  December 27, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12122   open full text
• “I don't know if she likes reading”: Are teachers perceived to be keen readers, and how is this determined?
  Margaret K. Merga.
  English in Education. December 27, 2016
  The benefits of regular recreational reading for literacy development have been widely acknowledged, and as such, encouraging children to be life‐long readers is an educational imperative. Teachers who are models of keen recreational reading can play an important role in fostering a keen love of reading in children, so that they regularly engage in the practice. However, it is not known if all teachers have the time, inclination and awareness to actively model a love of reading in their classrooms. This article explores data from the 2016 Western Australian Study in Children's Book Reading to ascertain which teacher behaviours and attitudes children deem indicative of a love of reading. While many children did not know if their teachers liked reading or not, teachers who were perceived to be readers talked about books in the context of pleasure, were seen to read independently at school, and read aloud to the class with expression and emotional connection.

  December 27, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12126   open full text
• Remembering Gordon Hodgeon.
  Mike Torbe, Sue Dymoke.
  English in Education. December 27, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  December 27, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12127   open full text
• To what extent do frameworks of reading development and the phonics screening check support the assessment of reading development in England?
  Jonathan Glazzard.
  English in Education. November 23, 2016
  The purpose of this article is to question the suitability of the phonics screening check in relation to models and theories of reading development. The article questions the appropriateness of the check by drawing on theoretical frameworks which underpin typical reading development. I examine the Simple View of Reading developed by Gough and Tunmer and Ehri's model of reading development. The article argues that the assessment of children's development in reading should be underpinned and informed by a developmental framework which identifies the sequential skills in reading development.

  November 23, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12119   open full text
• Reconsidering Paragraphing Pedagogy: A Descriptivist Perspective.
  Iain McGee.
  English in Education. September 14, 2016
  Teachers of writing have two options available to them when it comes to teaching paragraphing. There are, broadly speaking, either laissez faire approaches, or tightly prescriptivist ones. While the latter approaches have, at times, been challenged, they are entrenched in textbooks and testing rubrics, and are highly influential in some educational settings. In drawing on a wide range of research findings from a number of linguistic, educational and psychological research specialisms, this article presents a novel descriptivist pedagogy of paragraphing. By means of an analogy, paragraphing is described in a way in which research findings are respected, while at the same time educators’ concerns and needs are addressed.

  September 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12112   open full text
• If we teach writing, we should write.
  Theresa Gooda.
  English in Education. September 07, 2016
  This paper describes some of the key principles and practices of Teachers as Writers groups in the UK. It draws on participants' own accounts of the personal and pedagogic benefits of these voluntary teacher‐led activities. It also presents a case‐study of a teacher who used her experience of the process of writing in such a group to support students who were writing analytically about poetry in an A level (senior secondary) literature course.

  September 07, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12114   open full text
• Exploring children's discourses of writing.
  Andrew Lambirth.
  English in Education. August 22, 2016
  This article reports on a study which was part of a two year writing project undertaken by a University in South East England with 17 primary schools. A survey sought the views of up to 565 children on the subject of writing. The analysis utilises Ivanič's () discourses of writing framework as a heuristic and so provides a unique lens for a new understanding of children's ideological perspectives on writing and learning how to write. This study shows the development of learned or acquired skills and compliance discourses by the participating children within which accuracy and correctness overrides many other considerations for the use of the written word.

  August 22, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12111   open full text
• The Politics of Testing.
  Bethan Marshall.
  English in Education. August 01, 2016
  This article looks at the changes made to examinations in England over recent decades and asks about the politics behind the changes. It considers how increasingly centralised the assessment regime has become, moving from a system where teachers could have a say in how pupils are assessed to a regime dominated by government approved tests. It considers too how the standards‐based tests in England are both political in the abstract and party‐political in their content.

  August 01, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12110   open full text
• Governing by numbers: Local effects on students' experiences of writing.
  Nerida Spina.
  English in Education. July 29, 2016
  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 PISA 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 testing is that it increases transparency and provides parents and policy makers with important data; and that it ultimately drives student achievement. Although standardised assessments purport to improve transparency, limited attention is given to how the quantification of education changes the nature of teachers’ work. This institutional ethnographic study investigated how student achievement data on standardised tests served to reorient the work of teachers in six Australian schools. As educators increased their efforts to ‘improve their data’ these efforts limited alternative curriculum and pedagogic possibilities, such as fostering student creativity in the teaching of writing.

  July 29, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12109   open full text
• Embodied and Aesthetic Education Approaches in the English Classroom.
  Carmel Hinchion.
  English in Education. May 16, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  May 16, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12104   open full text
• The importance of word and world knowledge for the successful strategic processing of multiple texts online.
  Judith E. Riddell.
  English in Education. April 06, 2016
  This article is based on part of a case study looking into how sixth form students search for goal related information online for an open‐ended task. Qualitative data was gathered through think‐aloud protocols; analysis was informed by Afflerbach and Cho's () Hypertext reading strategies. From the perspective of multiple documents literacy and the Documents Model of reading comprehension, this case study suggests that language competence and general knowledge play a significant role in the successful construction of meaning from multiple texts in an online environment.

  April 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12102   open full text
• Teacher knowledge and beliefs about grammar: a case study of an English primary school.
  Huw Bell.
  English in Education. February 28, 2016
  This case study of developing teacher attitudes, beliefs and content knowledge at one primary school in the North‐West of England deals with the new spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) elements of the National Curriculum, focusing on grammatical terms and concepts. It uses data collected over 10 months from June 2014 to March 2015, including surveys, interviews and comments made during post‐observation discussions and during SPaG CPD sessions. The findings suggest that, while much work remains to be done in developing teachers’ knowledge base, attitudes are largely supportive of teaching children grammar terms and concepts.

  February 28, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12100   open full text
• Call for Papers.
  
  English in Education. February 19, 2016
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  February 19, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12101   open full text
• Along the Write Lines: a case study exploring activities to enable creative writing in a secondary English classroom.
  Audrey B. Wood.
  English in Education. February 08, 2016
  This article arises from a four week study of a class of 14‐15 year old students. The study explored students’ perception of themselves as writers and the effects of a variety of teaching and learning strategies on their creative writing responses. The aim of the project was to enhance the students’ creative writing, whilst ascertaining whether there were particular activities or types of writing that would lead to students perceiving more satisfactory outcomes in their writing. It answers the research question: What do I observe, and what do my students say, about the experience of different classroom based creative writing tasks?

  February 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12099   open full text
• Dangerous and uncontrollable: the politics of creativity in secondary English.
  Andrew McCallum.
  English in Education. February 05, 2016
  This article explores how policy discourses of creativity have an impact on the way that secondary English teachers construct creativity themselves and the opportunities that they have to enact these constructions in their classrooms. In particular, it focuses on policy around language learning and creativity, identifying significant differences in the way that this is constructed compared with policy constructions of the relationship between more general aspects of learning and creativity. It uses data drawn from interviews with twelve teachers working in two secondary schools to identify patterns that might begin to emerge in a wider study with larger numbers of schools and teachers. While it is not intended as a comparative study, some of the data that emerges encourages consideration about the distribution of creativity in secondary English classrooms and whether this is affected by issues of social class. As such, creativity for the purposes of the article itself is constructed as a resource existing in language (Blommaert ), with language users able both to shape meaning in particular ways and to be shaped by the language that they in turn receive (Volosinov ; Bakhtin ): a construction by and large mirrored by the teachers interviewed, despite the multiple other uses to which creativity can be put (Banaji and Burn ; Jones ).

  February 05, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12098   open full text
• Creative Potential within Policy: An Analysis of the 2013 English Literature Curriculum.
  Megan Mansworth.
  English in Education. January 25, 2016
  This article takes as its focus Lefebvre's trialectic of conceived, perceived and lived spaces as a lens through which to scrutinise the 2013 English Literature Curriculum, and to explore the extent to which creative spaces might exist within that curriculum. The article analyses how the curriculum is envisaged by policymakers and how it might be expected to be translated into practice, utilising the wording of the policy document to facilitate an exploration of what its underlying intentions might be. The author's experience of teaching a poem from the new curriculum is used in order to provide illustrative examples of the ways in which teachers’ and learners’ experiences of the curriculum might, in practice, diverge from the direction envisaged by policymakers as teachers negotiate creative spaces within their classrooms.

  January 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12097   open full text
• English and the politics of knowledge.
  John Yandell, Monica Brady.
  English in Education. January 11, 2016
  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 to the reading of a text. It seeks to contest a set of assumptions about ‘powerful’ knowledge as universal and transcendent, insisting that classrooms are places where meanings are made, not merely transmitted.

  January 11, 2016   doi: 10.1111/eie.12094   open full text
• Whole Language and the Fight for Public Education in the US.
  Howard Ryan, Debra Goodman.
  English in Education. December 23, 2015
  US public education faces concerted attack by those bent on corporate control, privatization, regimented reading instruction, and high‐stakes testing. One democratic, humanistic, and research‐based alternative can be found in the theory and practice of whole language, which empowered teachers and students alike through the 1980s and 1990s – until a political backlash re‐instituted corporate control of language arts. This article proposes that a renewed whole language movement, together with other allied educational campaigns, can provide hope and promise to the fight for quality public education.

  December 23, 2015   doi: 10.1111/eie.12096   open full text
• Exploring Enabling Literacy Environments: Young children's spatial and material encounters in early years classrooms.
  Karen Daniels.
  English in Education. November 29, 2015
  By observing children aged 4 and 5 within the highly organized space of an early years classroom, we can explore the ways in which young children's desire to express cultural agency drives them to draw upon space and materials in order to make meaning and examine the ways in which space and resources mediate such experiences. These observations, it is suggested, can provoke discussions that support understandings of early literacy as a collaborative and collective act, intricately connected with children's cultural experiences, their lives and identities and, importantly, always mediated by early years classroom spaces. By recognizing these things we are in a better position to expand current dominant notions of literacy development and question taken‐for‐granted early years practices around literacy pedagogy.

  November 29, 2015   doi: 10.1111/eie.12074   open full text
• Revealing the Iceberg: Creative Writing, Process & Deliberate Practice.
  Jonathan Monk.
  English in Education. November 13, 2015
  Historical attitudes to literary creativity often focus on it as a genetic or innate characteristic. Ericsson's notion of ‘deliberate practice’ and Simon & Chase's ‘ten‐year rule’, however, have shown the importance of sustained practice to achieve high‐level performance. The iceberg illusion of elite performance leaves observers marvelling at the end product without an appreciation of the hours of work beneath the surface. This case study considers how attitudes to student creative writing may be altered by emphasising creative process. Students engaged in creative writing which literalised the iceberg metaphor, placing greater focused on the ‘submerged’ planning, drafting and revision alongside the ‘visible’ end product. Utilising the extended mind hypothesis, student responses demonstrate the importance of planning to order and develop their ideas. The benefits of encouraging an approach to creativity that negates innatist explanations in favour of a growth mindset or deliberate practice approach are evidenced.

  November 13, 2015   doi: 10.1111/eie.12091   open full text
• W(h)ither the Radicals?
  Simon Gibbons.
  English in Education. November 04, 2015
  It can be argued that nearly thirty years of heavily centralised intervention into English pedagogy, curriculum and assessment have had a deprofessionalising effect on teachers. The accountability stranglehold means it is safer for English teachers to implement accepted strategies that are perceived to enable pupils to negotiate assessment hurdles, rather than to take risks with their practice and teach English in a way that reflects their own beliefs and political ideas about the transformative power of the subject for children. History shows us that some of the most radical reformers of subject English harnessed their political ideals in their pursuit of a progressive pedagogy; is it possible now to adopt such an approach?

  November 04, 2015   doi: 10.1111/eie.12092   open full text
• Exploring the role of parents in supporting recreational book reading beyond primary school.
  Margaret K. Merga.
  English in Education. April 03, 2014
  Levels of aliteracy have been found to rise in adolescence, and this article explores the potential influence of parents on this trend. The views of adolescent students who took part in semi‐structured interviews for the West Australian Study in Adolescent Book Reading (WASABR) provide insight into how parental support may change in the adolescent years. Student perspectives support earlier findings that there is an expiration of parental encouragement in many cases, though this sometimes occurs as children are avid readers and thus the support is no longer deemed necessary. The experiences of students with parents who provided continued encouragement into adolescence are examined, with consistent characteristics emerging from the qualitative data. The article identifies optimal mechanisms through which parents can play an important role in supporting their children's recreational book reading into adolescence.

  April 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/eie.12043   open full text
• Permission to fly: Creating classroom environments of imaginative (im)possibilities.
  Belinda Mendelowitz.
  English in Education. March 16, 2014
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  March 16, 2014   doi: 10.1111/eie.12041   open full text
• ICT for English in English ITE: An investigation into the ICT component of PGCE English courses.
  Lorna Smith.
  English in Education. January 23, 2014
  The spread of ICT () is arguably one of the greatest changes that compulsory education has witnessed in the last twenty years. However, to what extent are prospective secondary English teachers on a PGCE course effectively equipped to use ICT to work in a multiliterate curriculum, and how well prepared are their ITE tutors to support them? Here, I report on research conducted into the provision for ICT training in PGCE English courses. I discuss the need for teachers to theorise the relationship between English the subject and the use of ICT. I comment on the opportunity that School Direct might provide to place schools at the heart of ICT in ITE. I suggest that there is perhaps a need for further work on the relationship between research, ICT and ITE.

  January 23, 2014   doi: 10.1111/eie.12037   open full text
• Becoming a teacher of writing: Primary student teachers reviewing their relationship with writing.
  Paul Gardner.
  English in Education. January 23, 2014
  This article investigates the extent to which Year One B.Ed student teachers arrived at university already possessing self‐confidence as writers. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used to identify students' self perceptions and confidence as writers and their understanding of processes of written composition. The article argues that to consciously engage student teachers in the writing process and to require them to reflect on that process can lead to their self efficacy as writers. Evidence from this study suggests one's self‐confidence, as a writer, is enhanced by explicitly engaging in self reflection of one's own approaches to writing. The findings have implications for course design of literacy components in teacher education internationally.

  January 23, 2014   doi: 10.1111/eie.12039   open full text
• Great Expectations and the complexities of teacher development.
  Anne Turvey, Jeremy Lloyd.
  English in Education. December 30, 2013
  The heart of this article is an account written by a PGCE student at the end of the course. In this account Jeremy charts his changing views about teaching literature. Influenced by the work of Jerome Bruner () and others, he argues for greater ‘flexibility’ in the ways we conceptualise ‘critical response’ to a literary text. The work his Year 9 produce as they read Great Expectations emerges from Jeremy's attempts to encourage uncertainty, experiment and multiple perspectives in the students’ responses to a text. His approach to teaching the novel and the students’ richly varied readings capture something of the complexity of the meaning‐making practices that go on in an English classroom. Jeremy's writing is framed by a rationale for the value of writing in a course of initial teacher education and for a level of reflexive engagement with policy and practice.

  December 30, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12036   open full text
• Beyond Initial Transition: An International Examination of the Complex Work of Experienced Literacy/English Teacher Educators.
  Clare Kosnik, Pooja Dharamshi, Cathy Miyata, Yiola Cleovoulou.
  English in Education. December 03, 2013
  This article reports on a study of 21 mid‐career and senior literacy/English teacher educators in four countries: Canada, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia. Three main themes are discussed: identity (re)construction; knowledge development (e.g. of pedagogy; current literacy practices); and reconceptualisation of their work (courses and research). The literacy/English teacher educators had moved beyond the struggles of novice teacher educators; however, they still experienced a number of tensions. They had moved beyond identifying with and as a classroom teacher but felt that they needed to remain connected to teachers because their research is conducted in schools. They still felt less valued by their colleagues who were not actively involved in teacher education, not because they were novices, but because of their close involvement in schools. They found communities of literacy/English teacher educators beyond their university. All argued that they must continue to expand their knowledge in a number of areas but they see their continuous growth as a strength not a short‐coming. By mid‐career many created a synergy among their research, teaching, and service.

  December 03, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12031   open full text
• Addressing the Cinderella Area: using Masters level study to support Secondary English trainee teachers in developing effective teaching and assessment of speaking and listening.
  Mary Dunne.
  English in Education. November 25, 2013
  The article explores the use of a classroom‐based investigation at Masters level to support pre‐service teachers (secondary English PGCE trainees) in focusing on the need for explicit teaching and assessment of speaking and listening skills. With reference to specific case studies, it explores how the module encourages trainees' use of Socratic Circles in incorporating an increased focus on dialogic talk and meta‐cognitive approaches. It also considers the extent to which the module moves trainees from their early rudimentary practice to a much more sophisticated understanding and practice in relation to ensuring progression in pupils' learning and use of more constructivist and socio‐constructivist approaches.

  November 25, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12033   open full text
• Who Am I? Compositions of the self: an autoethnographic, rhizotextual analysis of two poetic texts.
  Paul Gardner.
  English in Education. November 15, 2013
  This article employs an autoethnographic, rhizotextual approach to analyse the compositional processes involved in the construction of two poems by the same author. What the analysis reveals is not only the internal thinking of the author in the process of composition but how the socio‐cultural standpoint of the author is implicated in the texts. It is posited that, in addition to the author's own lived experience informing composition, rhizotextual analysis enables us to extend beyond the self to interrogate the ‘secondary worlds’ of others and to form an empathic relationship to the ‘Other’. The findings of this article have implications for teachers’ knowledge of the socio‐cultural contexts of written composition. An authoethnographic, rhizotextual approach allows personal insights into the self, both as a writer and a person. This approach has implications for classroom practice, particularly for writing around issues of identity located in social class, gender, ‘race’, disability and sexual orientation, as well as the growing body of work on the teacher as a writer.

  November 15, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12032   open full text
• Creativity through complexity: identifying and using shadow networks in teaching The Merchant of Venice.
  Claire Hansen.
  English in Education. November 05, 2013
  This article uses complexity theory's concept of ‘shadow systems’ to explore innovative ways of teaching Shakespeare, particularly The Merchant of Venice. Using data drawn from observations at a secondary school in Sydney, Australia, and interviews with two secondary teachers, this article aims to consider how embracing ideas which emerge from the unauthorised and often subversive ‘shadow network’ of a classroom environment can result in creative, independent, engaged learning. I use Ralph D. Stacey's theoretical framework and Bourdieu and Passeron's work on the legitimate to suggest that the tension between the legitimate and the shadow networks can create a space of ‘impotential’, as defined by Tyson Edward Lewis.

  November 05, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12030   open full text
• Possibility in impossibility? Working with beginning teachers of English in times of change.
  Joanna McIntyre, Susan Jones.
  English in Education. October 29, 2013
  Beginning teachers of English are entering a profession in which their subject is increasingly framed according to prescriptive models of literacy. This is happening at a time of shift away from university ITE provision towards school‐led training. We offer a spatialised theorisation of the ways in which beginning teachers of English have drawn from the balance of practical and theoretical approaches encountered in their qualifying year to engage with tensions between policy and practice. We suggest that university ITE provides important interstitial spaces in which they can explore some of these tensions and navigate pedagogies, principles and values. In doing so, they are negotiating alternatives, which, we argue, represent powerful potential for their future within the profession.

  October 29, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12029   open full text
• Surveying the wreckage: the professional response to changes to initial teacher training in the UK.
  John Hodgson.
  English in Education. October 29, 2013
  From September 2013, the UK government has shifted the balance of initial teacher training (ITT) provision from higher education to ‘School Direct’, a school‐centred and employment‐based route. The National Association for the Teaching of English has conducted an online survey of professional opinion on these changes. 730 individual educators completed the survey; 382 supplemented their responses with written comments. These responses reveal considerable doubt as to whether a school will be able to resource key elements of teacher training. The majority of respondents fear that the quality of trainees' subject knowledge, understanding of educational purposes and processes, and classroom preparedness will all decline. Trainees will be less well tutored and mentored and an impoverished overall experience of teacher education may affect morale. Employers will find difficulty in filling posts appropriately and the national/regional balance of job supply and demand will be affected. Regional provision of ITT will be more variable and worse overall. Many respondents believe that University‐led training allows trainees to reflect on and learn from multiple teaching placements through contact with their tutor, their peers, and other learning communities. A wise educational policy would not destroy a teacher training culture that has developed over many decades.

  October 29, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12028   open full text
• A Tale of Two Cities: a comparison of the PGCE Secondary English programmes at the Universities of Bristol and Malta, with particular emphasis on the student teachers' school‐based experience and the role of the mentor.
  Lorna Smith, Doreen Spiteri.
  English in Education. August 04, 2013
  In this article, we compare the Secondary English Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) programme for initial teacher education at the University of Bristol, UK, with that at the University of Malta, with particular attention to the content of the respective programmes and the role of the school‐based mentor. We explore issues raised by the fact that, while Bristol relies on a mentor figure to support all student teachers, the Maltese programme does not yet use this model. Consideration is given to the benefits and challenges of working with mentors and the implications for student teachers and their mentors with the development of the newly‐introduced School Direct programme in England.

  August 04, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12027   open full text
• Should Silent Reading feature in a secondary school English programme? West Australian students' perspectives on Silent Reading.
  Margaret K. Merga.
  English in Education. July 31, 2013
  The purpose of my article is to provide an opportunity for reflection on the merit of incorporating Silent Reading into secondary learning programmes. The role of Silent Reading in the learning programme has been the subject of recent research, yielding mixed findings. I explore the current issues that have arisen in research which warrant the consideration of practitioners, with a particular focus on adolescent learners. These issues are subsequently examined in light of findings from the recent West Australian Study in Adolescent Book Reading. Qualitative data from semi‐structured, dyadic interviews were gathered and analysed, with the reflections of students providing insight into the current status of Silent Reading in secondary schools, and the efficacy of elements of contemporary models of Silent Reading.

  July 31, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12026   open full text
• Dream Writing: A new creative writing technique for secondary schools?
  Gilly Smith.
  English in Education. July 02, 2013
  Writer and academic Gilly Smith examines the use of a new creative writing technique for school children inspired by the Automatic Writing of the Surrealists and the Free Writing of novelists and poets. Set within the discourse of Sir Ken Robinson, her argument is that Dream Writing can free expression, raising morale and standards in creative writing in schools while enabling children to see the originality of their own imaginations on the page. Analysing the results of a year‐long trial with Year 7 students, she finds evidence of significant impact on creative writing and a helpful settling exercise for the teacher.

  July 02, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12020   open full text
• Exercising ‘The Right To Research’: Youth‐Based Community Media Production as Transformative Action.
  Paula M. Salvio.
  English in Education. June 17, 2013
  This article explores the participatory media practices used by the Center for Urban Pedagogy, a non‐profit community‐based media organisation in New York City. Taking as her point of departure a digital media investigation into bodegas in the south Bronx (neighbourhood grocery stores), the author explores how CUP uses the power of art and design to cultivate civic engagement among youth, in part by strengthening participants’ public speaking, digital media and research skills. In interviews with participants, the author finds that this work mitigates participants’ expressed fears of being dismissed as boring when speaking with public officials, a fear taken seriously through a reading of the work of child psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott. Winnicott worried that the person who felt boring too often retreated from participating in civic life. If, argues the author, youth are to claim what Appadurai describes as the fundamental ‘human right to research’ in the public realm, then the civic as well as the psychological dimensions that enable participants to engage in transformative action must be strengthened.

  June 17, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12019   open full text
• Water Cycle.
  Liz Cashdan.
  English in Education. June 17, 2013
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  June 17, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12013   open full text
• Writing the Unseen Poem: can the writing of poetry help to support pupils' engagement in the reading of poetry?
  Karen Lockney, Kevin Proudfoot.
  English in Education. April 08, 2013
  This article discusses a small scale project investigating the role of writing poetry in order to strengthen pupils' responses to reading and analysing poetry. This takes place within the context of preparation for a question on unseen poetry in a high stakes examination, in a contemporary climate where creative responses to poetry are reported to be less prevalent than analytical responses within an assessment‐focused curriculum. The project investigates strategies to inspire pupils to write their own poetry and to analyse the work of their peers in order to ‘put themselves in the shoes’ of the poet, supporting them in preparing for the examination question. It also involves teacher‐modelling of the writing and reading processes to support pupils in feeling part of a reading and writing community.

  April 08, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12017   open full text
• I guess it scares us – Teachers discuss the teaching of poetry in senior secondary English.
  Mary Weaven, Tom Clark.
  English in Education. April 08, 2013
  This article reports on a participant‐centred research project with English teachers in a senior secondary college in Melbourne, Australia. It builds on previous research (Weaven and Clark 2009, 2011), which showed a low take‐up of the opportunities to teach poetry in Victoria's senior secondary English curriculum. This study explores the reasons why teachers of English are unwilling to use poetry texts in their senior classes. The teachers who participated in this study discussed and documented their attitudes towards the teaching of poetry and explored with each other the pedagogical challenges associated with teaching poetry. Their discussions – an analysis of which forms the empirical core of this article – reveal a range of explanations for teachers' reservations about offering poetry to their students. Importantly, these teachers were able to use professional discussion as a means to consider what changes in teaching practice could be successfully developed to facilitate more time spent on the teaching of poetry in senior secondary classes.

  April 08, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12016   open full text
• Colluding in the ‘Torture’ of Poetry: Shared Beliefs and Assessment.
  Daniel Xerri.
  English in Education. March 15, 2013
  Assessment is most often held responsible for teachers' and students' mechanical approach to poetry in class. This article shows how examination pressure leads a group of poetry teachers and A Level English students at a post‐16 college in Malta to perpetuate an approach to poetry that is characterised by an emphasis on finding hidden meaning. However, it is also argued that to blame only assessment for this approach is to run the risk of ignoring the shared beliefs that teachers and students have about poetry.

  March 15, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12012   open full text
• Youth take the lead: Digital poetry and the next generation.
  Helen Gregory.
  English in Education. March 11, 2013
  Digital literacy projects offer an exciting means of engaging young people in poetry. Many such projects fall short of realising their full potential however, overlooking students' technological expertise and ability to learn from one another. Youth slam and spoken word (YSSW) offers possibilities for developing these projects, making creative use of both new technologies and student‐centred learning techniques. YSSW's artistic and didactic achievements demonstrate what young people can achieve if we relinquish our privileged positions as authoritative teachers/artists. This article considers how YSSW participants have used digital technologies to create innovative artworks, develop new notions of literacy and inspire their peers to explore their own artistic, socially engaged identities.

  March 11, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12011   open full text
• Disturbing stories: Literature as Pedagogical Disruption.
  Julie Faulkner, Gloria Latham.
  English in Education. February 28, 2013
  Literature's power to consider moral and ethical issues to expand and reflect on our own lives has long been considered a vital dimension of subject English. Moreover, critical perspectives ask how texts and pedagogies serve particular interests and beliefs, leaving other perspectives silent. ‘Safe’ elements of teaching are reinforced by discourses established through experience, while popular narratives can distort the complexities of teaching. Initial teachers witness little in their field experience to challenge inscribed ways of thinking, which marginalises the role of critical theory in classroom practice. In this article, we use a pedagogy of discomfort to explore how an adolescent novel can challenge initial teachers' notions of literature teaching. We discuss the ways in which unsettling fiction based on fact serves to dislocate certainties, and suggest possibilities for reconstructing initial teachers' approaches to literature and pedagogy.

  February 28, 2013   doi: 10.1111/eie.12010   open full text