ABSTRACT
Historical contexts In recent years, perhaps because of the paradoxical and contested nature of their subject, English teachers in secondary schools have become increasingly used to living with externally imposed strictures on the content and even the delivery of English. The National Curriculum, ushered in by the 1988 Education Act and, for English, substantially revised several times since, could be seen as the instigator of much of this development. The National Curriculum, and much of what has followed in its wake (particularly the methods used to assess and record pupils’ and schools’ achievements, and the various National Strategies) could be seen as a reaction to the rather piecemeal nature of the secondary school curriculum before 1988, in the sense that what was taught, especially in a subject like English whose practitioners defended, and frequently defi ned themselves by, their right to safeguard individuality in teaching and learning, depended on the particular qualities of the teachers concerned. Some of these teachers were excellent: creative, thorough and highly effective; others less so (I remember distinctly noticing this division during my early English teaching experience in the 1980s). Much about English teaching prior to1988 was, however, positive: new examination syllabuses at sixteen and eighteen, based largely on coursework, opened up exciting opportunities for effective and innovative teaching of both language and literature, increasingly integrated at all levels. At the same time, pioneering work was going on in English departments in a range of other areas: speaking and listening; integration with drama; media education; active approaches to literature, including Shakespeare; awareness and knowledge of the workings of language; and (especially apposite here) collaboration with other curricular subjects.
