This review essay begins with the premise that we are all writers. However, for a number of reasons, many teachers struggle to identify as writers and teachers of writing. In the current environment, the need for schools to adopt pedagogical practices facilitating the development of disciplinary literacies means that teachers cannot avoid the task…

This article is based on the authors' own experience of Garth Boomer as a splendid friend, a superb colleague, and an inspirational leader. In September 2005 the author was invited to deliver the Garth Boomer Memorial Lecture at the Biennial International Conference of the Australian Curriculum Studies Association (ACSA). This article is based on…

In this paper JoAnne Reid explains why she is confident about the benefits of programming, and uses this opportunity to reflect upon Garth Boomer's influence on her own teaching practice. Reid adds "I think more theoretically about programming in my own situation of practice--teacher education." Using Boomer's own work on programming,…

This is the text of a paper given at the 2011 Symposium of the Australian Academy of the Humanities on the theme, "Educating the Nation: The Humanities in the New Australian Curriculum", the 42nd Annual Symposium of the Australian Academy of the Humanities at the University of Melbourne, 17 November 2011. It was presented in a session on…

I have been an English teacher for 38 (gulp!) years. For over 20 of those I have taught "English methods" courses in initial teacher education programs. As the retirement light glows increasingly brighter at the end of my career pathway, I reflect on three aspects of teaching English that have been--and remain--the cornerstones of my…

Discusses the author's success in teaching English. Describes his experiences in achievement, including what has sometimes felt like a slow and even painful process of professional development. Presents an outline of a unit that illustrates a movement through approaches: from personal growth type activities, to post-structuralist and critical…

Discusses a holistic curriculum plan involving bininj (Australian Aboriginal) and balanda (non aboriginal) preservice teachers at Gunbalanya thinking, talking and writing about a philosophy on "both ways" education. Notes the curriculum addresses three essential issues: what "both ways" education is; what educators need to learn about "both ways"…

Discusses what English is for in the era of globalization. Explains new tasks for English; English in the era of information and communication; and aesthetics, ethics, and texts as the purposes of English. Concludes that a rich version of English is the subject which still mediates understandings of taste, in its multiple and various textual…

Presents the curriculum development work with which the English department at John Therry High School (New South Wales) has been involved, exploring five aspects of the project: (1) why the project was undertaken, (2) what the project is, (3) how the project worked, (4) the reality of the project, and (5) implications of the project. (HOD)

Presents brief essays by teachers of English in Australian primary and secondary schools in a bid to convey images of accomplished teaching. Introduction by Brenton Doecke, includes "Negotiating the Curriculum" (Lynne Collidge); "Year 7 Autobiographies" (Chris Melican); "Taking Ownership" (Cheryl Lawson);…

Contends there is a continuing Australian wariness of intellectual precocity and it is self-evident that strong feelings of egalitarianism are still prevalent in policy debates concerning New South Wales (NSW) educational history. Explores some of these aspects historically from convict beginnings to the present. Speculates about their effect on…

Describes the experience and implications of the Kewdale Project for English teacher education, particularly inservice, and for learning theory in practice. (HOD)

Describes the Language Development Project--the first national curriculum project in language education in Australia. (HOD)

Describes action research through which systematic improvement in both practice and understanding occurs through planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. Then, applies this research to the Kewdale project, focusing particularly upon the kinds of knowledge that were generated by the participants and the sorts of actions that took place in their…