ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the curricular history of English as a subject in English schools. The interest in English as a subject is twofold. First, substantively, English has come to be regarded, primarily through its association with the skills of reading and writing, as a crucial and essential component of the schooling of all students right up to the legal school leaving age. Second, English provides a living case study from which it has been possible to develop a general schema for the analysis of conflict and change in school subjects. The chapter presents an account of the developments and pressures acting through and upon English teaching. It also focuses on the structures and conditions, the external influences and determinations which impinged upon English teaching in the period 1970 to 1985. Equally, in many schools, teachers were given posts of responsibility for 'language across the curriculum' and numerous in-service education courses were soon being offered under this title.
