ABSTRACT
The significance of animal representation in the classroom When I asked a colleague for her views on teaching animals in English she joked, ‘Do you mean bottom set Year 11?’ Frequently in our culture animals and children are linked – and not always positively. Part of the cultural work that goes on in schools is to induct children into ‘civilised’ values – the cultural norms of values and behaviour. In this sense of being novices in culture, children are routinely depicted in close relationship to animals – a status that has been described as ‘becoming human’ (Lee 2001). Part of the hidden curriculum of school is to make clear the boundary between human and animal and to put children and animals in their place – symbolically and literally. The teaching of English is a crucial part of this process of cultural work, which often goes on in passing, without conscious critical reflection on the significance of animal/human relationships. The British cliché is that we are a nation of animal lovers, whereas the deeper ideology of animal/human relations is of course more complex and less comfortable.
