TEACHER SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE in ENGLISH
The general trend around Australia at the moment in curriculum is for the development of longitudinal statements of general "curriculum frameworks" for each KLA including English. During the late 1990s, there developed along with this trend, an increasing tendency towards inter-disciplinary models of curriculum, often framed as Essential Learnings. While there has been something of a retreat in the very recent past from such models of curriculum, they nevertheless raise the issue of the place of specialist curriculum knowledge in English. One continuing area of interest in this respect is that of middle schooling, which often raises questions about cross-disciplinary integration and which provides an appropriate context for the discussion of teacher specialist knowledge. If the middle school, for example, were to be seen as a bridge between the more integrated curriculum of the Primary school and the more specialised discipline-based curriculum of later schooling, what could that mean for the specialist knowledge of the English teacher?
Middle schooling presents its own challenges in terms of student development and learning, which have been well documented (cf Sawyer and MacFarlane, 2000 for an account of some of the themes). There is certainly something of a drive in this literature towards curricula based on ‘integrated project’ models of learning. These are said to reflect some of the key aspects of the challenges of educating early adolescents, for example:
- growth towards independence (Cormack, 1991)
- the need to further develop problem-solving and research skills (see, for example, California Department of Education, 2006: 299) and to encourage and reward research effort
- the furtherance of team and social skills (Hancock and Simpson, 1997).
- the place of youth culture as a site for debate and interpretation (Doecke and McClenaghan, 2004; Hancock and Simpson, 1997)
- embracing the technologised and multimodal nature of contemporary literacy practice (Hancock and Simpson 1997).
In NSW, the term "middle schooling" tends largely to still refer to Stages 4 and 5, or junior high school. In this sense, the NSWETA supports the statements on Stages 4 and 5 English developed by the NSW Board of Studies and contained in the relevant Syllabuses, viz:
As they move into secondary years, students enter into a more specialised study of English. They are increasing their control over their abilities to read, write, listen, speak, view and represent experience. In their growth towards adulthood, students engage with a wider and more challenging range of texts to reflect their maturing view of the world. Their increasing ability to consider with detachment enables the development of a formal language repertoire for an increasing range of purposes, audiences and situations. They are able to engage in close textual analysis and reflect on the purposes and effects of conventions in texts. Students begin to extend their interpretations of texts, develop more complex reasoning and justify arguments with substantial evidence from text and context. They evaluate simple texts critically, dealing with them in more complex ways. They continue to develop their understanding of, and competence in, a range of technologies in order to respond to and compose texts. They analyse the relationships between the text and the medium of production.
In Stages 4–5, students further explore language choices. They develop knowledge and understanding of the range of possible generic forms of texts, and ways in which they can be varied and combined for effect. They recognise and understand the components of register and its effects on meaning. They experience, respond to, compose and enjoy a range of literary texts aimed at an adolescent and young adult audience, and consider complex textual features including such notions as irony, metaphor and experimentation with textual conventions. Students compare and contrast texts. They consider the effects of personal, vocational, social, historical, and cultural and workplace contexts on the ways that people respond to and compose texts. This leads them to understand the ways that texts reproduce experience and modify language practices, values, ideas and ways of thinking. Their composition reflects this understanding.
In Stages 4–5, students enjoy and appreciate their own and others’ use of written, oral and visual language. They value reading as a personal and social skill and value and enjoy literature as an individual, social and aesthetic experience. They develop skills in responding to and composing a wide range of mass media products in a sensitive and critical way; and they begin to consider the ethical and sociopolitical implications of texts. (Board of Studies, NSW, 1999: 10-11)
In this conceptualisation of the subject, the skills and knowledges being developed in students include:
- their imaginative capabilities through literature
- their abilities to use language to shape their understandings of the world
- their skills in the usage and the manipulation of aspects of structure and style
- their macro-skills as composers of, and responders to, texts
- their knowledge in the broadest sense about specific literary texts
- their knowledge in the broadest sense about a larger range of texts
- the ability to critique the ideology(ies) of a broad range of texts
What degree of specialised knowledge is involved, then, in the delivery of such a curriculum? We believe that the kinds of specialist knowledge required in English to deliver the curriculum described above necessarily includes:
- strong intellectual grounding in analysing a range of textual forms, using a range of tools: aesthetic, linguistic, critical
- experience in the processes of textual production and the pedagogy associated with producing texts: imaginative, personal, critical, analytical, evaluative
- familiarity with canonical literature
- familiarity with adolescent literature
- familiarity with a range of popular and youth culture texts and forms, particularly from the media
- knowledge of language development in the adolescent years and the pedagogy around such language development
- a knowledge of socio-linguistics – register, dialect etc
- a background in cultural studies – including the relationship between texts, their production and reception
- the comfortable use of a range of technologies, multimedia platforms and the pedagogies associated with analysing and producing these
- familiarity with a range of assessment types
The twin (perhaps related) drives of teacher shortages in English and a tendency towards a more integrated curriculum for middle schooling in some jurisdictions – nationally and internationally – have implications for teacher specialist knowledge in English. Given this high degree of specialised knowledge involved in the delivery of these Syllabuses in the middle schooling years, the NSW ETA believes that only those teachers trained in English curriculum and pedagogy should be teaching the subject at these stages, and, indeed, at all stages of high school. The ETA supports the move by the NSW Institute of Teachers to strengthen subject knowledge among potential English teachers.
References
Board of Studies, NSW (1999). Stage 6 Syllabus: English: Preliminary and HSC courses. Sydney: Board of Studies, NSW.
Board of Studies, NSW (2002). Stages 4 and 5 English: Years 7-10 Syllabus. Sydney: Board of Studies, NSW.
California Department of Education (2006) "Reading/ Language Arts Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve". Accessed 10 April, 2007 at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/cf/.
Cormack, P. (1991). The nature of adolescence. Adelaide: Education Department of South Australia, Junior Secondary Review.
Dept of Education, Tasmania (2004). "Essential learnings framework". Accessed 11 July 2004 at: http://www.education.tas.gov.au/ocll/currcons/default.htm
Doecke, Brenton and McClenaghan, Douglas (2004). "Reconceptualising experience: growth pedagogy and youth culture", in Wayne Sawyer, and Eva Gold, (eds) Re-Viewing English in the 21st century. Melbourne: Phoenix Education.
Education Queensland (2001). "The new basics project". Accessed 11 July 2004 at: http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/
Hancock, J., and Simpson, A. (1997). Reflecting on viewing, Volume 1: Final Report. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Sawyer, Wayne and McFarlane, Kate (2000) Reviewing English in Years 7-10: a report for the NSW Board of Studies. NSW Board of Studies. Accessed 10 October 2004 at: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/manuals/pdf_doc/english_710_review.pdf
South Australia Curriculum Standards and Accountability Framework (nd). "English: Curriculum scope and standards". Accessed 10 October 2004 at:
http://www.sacsa.sa.edu.au/index_fsrc.asp?t=LA
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2004). "Curriculum reform project". Accessed 11 July 2004 at: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/prep10/crp/index.htm