Purpose: This paper encourages teachers and scholars of English Language Arts to engage deliberately with literary ambiguity. Design/methodology/approach: Through close attention to ambiguous moments in commonly taught texts, the essay argues that explicit attention to ambiguity can support four enduring goals in the field: fostering social…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a critical discussion and re-evaluation of the Personal Growth (PG) model of English, noting that the summer of 2016 marks 50 years since the Dartmouth Conference and the publication of John Dixon's seminal response to the conference in "Growth Through English" (1967). The influence of the London…

The status of poetry both in the writing curriculum and in wider popular culture is best described as mixed (Wilson, 2009). In spite of a strong post-war tradition of enthusiasm for the teaching of poetry writing, it is currently felt to be marginalised in the writing curriculum (Dymoke, 2007; Ofsted, 2007). This paper reports on the beliefs,…

In a self-study the main author examines the difficulties and challenges his students experience in their literary development. The central question is: How can my teaching support students in their literary development? This self-study is supported by a research group, examining together one literature lesson given by the main author, striving…

During the years following the Second World War, members of the English teaching community in London, often within the London Association for the Teaching of English, conducted work which led to a "new" English for the emerging comprehensive school system. Such work was rooted in the belief that English teaching should be responsive to…