ABSTRACT
This book invites readers to engage with the rich and complex debates of contemporary English education, outlining new possibilities to revive the teaching of English.
Bringing together diverse voices and insights from educators in English across the primary, secondary, further and higher education phases, the book offers reflections and critical engagement with the lived experiences of English teachers and pupils in contemporary educational spaces. Each chapter includes example vignettes from classrooms which tell something of the story of English teaching today. The book considers how politics and policy have worked to close the opportunities of the English classroom for self-expression and critical engagement with the world – a murder. The authors then offer an exploration of the opportunities for a re-imagining of English – the murmurs of teachers and pupils that resist such closures. The chapters explore new thinking, new practices and new possibilities for English classrooms as inclusive, emancipatory, critical and creative spaces.
Offering a thoughtful and hopeful dialogue from practising English teacher-researchers, the book will be essential reading for researchers and students of English language and literature education, as well as trainee teachers of English.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|75 pages
The murder: Politics, policy and practice
part |1 pages
Vignette: What I'd wished I'd said
chapter 2|10 pages
Where has oracy gone?
chapter 4|13 pages
Rethinking, Reimagining English in the Post-16 Sector
chapter 5|11 pages
Against the clock
chapter 6|11 pages
“A little bit of Jekyll, a little Mr. Hyde”
part 2|63 pages
Notes from the struggle: Engagement and re-openings
part |1 pages
Vignette: Who watches the watchmen themselves?
chapter 8|10 pages
“Smallness, narrowness and servility”
chapter 10|11 pages
Making Creative Spaces – Constraints and Aspirations
chapter 11|9 pages
Old Books for Hungry Children
chapter 12|11 pages
In Your Own Write; for English Wherever I May Find Her
part 3|69 pages
The murmur: Optimism, re-imaginings and ways to rethink English
part |1 pages
Vignette: Show & tell