ABSTRACT
At fi rst glance, this may seem an intimidating assembly of components to represent in any curriculum, especially when combined with a welter of other priorities in teaching and learning. However, teaching has always been something of a balancing act; the challenge lies in creatively and fl exibly adapting to curricular needs and initiatives as they help to revitalise pedagogy and foster imaginative, purposeful engagement, rather than simply ticking an ever-expanding series of boxes. This is all the more important as we
seek to explore beyond the traditional subject boundaries of secondary schools in a spirit of interdisciplinarity. However my premise here is that we start, as English teachers, with the English classroom and its possibilities. Offi cial curriculum guidance in the English context, as embedded in the National Curriculum which itself has drawn heavily on the Strategy’s approaches, in practical terms focuses on the ‘4 Cs’: competence; creativity; cultural understanding; and critical understanding. In all four, clearly, there is signifi cant scope for cross-curricular ventures, but we need fi rst to clarify in a little more detail what they may mean.
