Essays exploring the opportunities for and challenges to the discipline of English language and literature in education. The study of English literature, language, culture and creative writing is an important and dynamic enterprise. English: Shared Futures celebrates the discipline's intellectual strength, diversity and creativity, explores its futures in the nations of the UK and across the world, and brings together the huge scholarly, cultural and social energy of the biggest subject in the Arts and Humanities in Higher and in Secondary education: the most staff, the most students. It represents the synergies produced when practitioners and students from across the discipline come together, and aims to enable new understanding of the challenges that the discipline faces within schools and universities, the vital cultural and political role that English plays, and a renewed appreciation of the intellectual vitality and commitment of its scholars and students. Overall, it demonstrates the rich ecosystem of a subject crucial to social, cultural, and economic well-being, and offers ways in which its vitality can be ensured in the face of new challenges within and beyond the academy. ROBERT EAGLESTONE is Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought, Royal Holloway, University of London; GAIL MARSHALL is Head of the School of Literature and Languages at the University of Reading. Contributors: James Annesley, Katherine Baxter, Barbara Bleiman, Elleke Boehmer, Kirsti Bohata, Benjamin A. Brabon, Linda Bree, Susan Bruce, Billy Clark, Stefan Collini, Jane Davis, Sarah Dillon, Clare Egan, Elizabeth English, Emily Ennis, Martin Paul Eve, Corinne Fowler, Barbara Gallego Larrarte, Marcello Giovanelli, Diya Gupta, Rob Hawkes, Ann Hewings, Keith Jarrett, Clara Jones, Seraphima Kennedy, Ben Knights, Simon Koevesi, Clare A. Lees, Alison Lumsden, Andrea Macrae, Lewi Mondal, Paul Munden, Daniel O'Gorman, Lynda Prescott, Ilse A. Ras, Catherine Redford, Rick Rylance, Helen Saunders, Jenny Stevens, Marion Thain, Stephen Watkins, Harry Whitehead

In-the-moment dilemmas and situational awareness are central to teachers' work, but these concepts may not always find their way into teacher education - as they often get pushed aside in favour of curriculum coverage and compliance agendas. This book challenges a technicist and mechanistic view of teaching and learning to examine how teacher educators might best prepare soon-to-be teachers to make sound professional judgements in their classroom practice. It discusses evidence in the literature that teaching does not directly 'produce' learning and that nurturing learning is a complex business which relies on both 'art and science'. Current policies and compliancy agendas influencing the content of ITE programmes are analysed, and the text provides practical suggestions for how to nurture professional judgement in trainee teachers through HE provision and school-based mentoring.  It describes the dynamism of those who teach in classrooms and reminds teacher educators of the value and necessity of managing structure and improvisation, protocol and intuition which are at the heart of what it means to be a professional.  A new addition to our Critical Guides for Teacher Educators series.

This book argues that the history of English Studies is embedded in its classroom practice, and its practice in its history. Some of its foundational struggles are still being lived out today. English is characterized as a 'boundary' subject, active in dialogue across a number of imagined borders, especially those between academic and non-specialized readerships. While the subject discipline maintains strong pedagogic principles, many of its principles and values are obscure or even invisible to students and potential students. The book cross-fertilizes the study of English as a subject with the analysis of selected literary texts read as pedagogic parables. It concludes with a call for a return to the subject's pedagogic roots.

This book is about the development in nineteenth-century England of the idea of a secular intellectual elite - the 'clerisy'. These intellectuals wanted to free themselves from the pressures of material conditioning and be in touch with transcendent values. This elite would be capable of seeing and valuing the best in the national cultural heritage and raising the standard of intellectual life. Dr Knights considers five major writers who shared this concern: Coleridge, Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, J. S. Mill and J. H. Newman. He finds important similarities, arising out of shared problems and assumptions. The status of literary culture was still such that to many of its practitioners a 'clerisy' offered the only hope of reversing a trend towards cultural and social disintegration. Dr Knights goes on to examine the influence of the idea upon the reorganisation of university curricula in the latter part of the century.

The subject of this book is the crossover between critical study and creative writing. 'Active reading' is a structured process of writing activities using imitation, variation and experimentation. Through practical composition techniques such as 'transformational writing', 're-writing' or 'translation', students can use writing activities to develop their critical imagination. This book bridges the gap between theories of learning and Literary studies in Higher Education. Setting the argument in an historical and theoretical context, it outlines the importance of writing as a medium of learning and argues for its usefulness in aiding English students' understanding of theoretical as well as literary and cultural texts. The authors provide a reflective account of teaching and assessment methods using writing activities and critical thinking techniques and the forms of learning they promote. In the last section, they explore the connections with other forms of writing practice in related disciplines and argue for the role of transformational writing in promoting independent learning. Appendices provide examples of the range of activities that can be used and an indicative list of literary examples.

This book argues that the history of English Studies is embedded in its classroom practice, and its practice in its history. Some of its foundational struggles are still being lived out today. English is characterized as a 'boundary' subject, active in dialogue across a number of imagined borders, especially those between academic and non-specialized readerships. While the subject discipline maintains strong pedagogic principles, many of its principles and values are obscure or even invisible to students and potential students. The book cross-fertilizes the study of English as a subject with the analysis of selected literary texts read as pedagogic parables. It concludes with a call for a return to the subject's pedagogic roots.

This book comprises reflections by experienced scholar teachers on the principles and practice of higher education English teaching. In approaching the subject from different angles it aims to spark insights and to foster imaginative teaching. In the era of audit, and the Teaching Excellence Framework it invites teachers to return to the sources of their own teaching knowledge. The shift from a student-centred to a research-centred paradigm has particular implications for a discipline which prides itself on its teaching, and has always had teaching and dialogue at its heart. One which also talks across the tertiary / secondary border to the cognate (though different) subject called 'English' in school. The argument which informs this book, and which is developed in the individual chapters, is that the future of the subject relies not alone upon fostering communities of 'research excellence', but on re-awakening and reviving its pedagogic traditions.

This book highlights the value of creative and re-creative transformational writing in learning and teaching and provides practical examples of its application.The subject of this book is the crossover between critical study and creative writing. 'Active reading' is a structured process of writing activities using imitation, variation and experimentation. Through practical composition techniques such as 'transformational writing', 're-writing' or 'translation', students can use writing activities to develop their critical imagination.This book bridges the gap between theories of learning and Literary studies in Higher Education. Setting the argument in an historical and theoretical context, it outlines the importance of writing as a medium of learning and argues for its usefulness in aiding English students' understanding of theoretical as well as literary and cultural texts.The authors provide a reflective account of teaching and assessment methods using writing activities and critical thinking techniques and the forms of learning they promote. In the last section, they explore the connections with other forms of writing practice in related disciplines and argue for the role of transformational writing in promoting independent learning.Appendices provide examples of the range of activities that can be used and an indicative list of literary examples.