ABSTRACT
Because of the way in which English literature is often presented as a body of historical texts, there is a notion that English as a subject spreads back into the mists of time. English as a recognisable school subject has existed only since the beginning of the twentieth century and the category of English literature, as we know it, is little more than a hundred years old (Gossman, 1981, p. 341). The Oxford School of English was not established until 1894 in the face of strong opposition from the Classicists, as the quotation that opens this chapter indicates (Palmer, 1965, pp. 104-117). Nevertheless, within the last century the centrality of English to the education of children was recognised and the subject now exists as part of the ‘core’ of the National Curriculum. However, the progress from new to established subject was not a smooth journey and, at times, the conflicting beliefs about the nature and purpose of English caused fierce debate, not least during the late 1980s when there were two national reports on the teaching of English: Kingman (1989) and Cox (1989). The National Curriculum Order for English, produced in 1990, was revised in 1993, 1994, 1999 and 2007. This chapter explores the roots of the views about English teaching that underpinned the recent debates.
