The installation of the new Australian Curriculum offers rich possibilities for rethinking English in Australia, and beyond. This paper proposes that rhetoric is usefully drawn into this work of reconceptualisation, as strategically an organising principle for English curriculum theory and practice. It reviews existing work on rhetoric and…

The year 2012 is significant for English teachers in Australia, not only is it the National Year of Reading, but it is also the year when an increasing number of English teachers across the country are implementing the "Australian Curriculum: English," the first national curriculum in the history of the nation. This paper addresses the…

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…

In late 2011, the author was approached by Garry Collins, the president of ETAQ, to deliver a keynote for ETAQ for their first meeting in March 2012. The reflections presented in this article have been drawn from the transcript of that presentation. The reflections focus mainly on implementing the Australian curriculum--English. (Contains 1 note.)

The current version of the draft National Curriculum (1.0.1) remains a document which dis-integrates the subject through its three strands and fails to conceptualise a relationship between these strands. Drawing on curriculum history, I argue that this stands in strong contrast to a curriculum such as the 1971 NSW Syllabus for Years 7-10, which…

Gunther Kress's call for a curriculum based on textual creation in a global era of instability is particularly appropriate to the present historical moment. Here I argue the need for a notion of creativity as the basis for a national curriculum in English. The kind of creativity envisaged issues out of a systems theory approach which sees…

While all comparisons are difficult, a consideration of the English national curriculum may offer some insights about the Australian version. In this paper, I suggest that there are some important similarities between the two approaches. I query the stated purposes of the Australian national curriculum and its adoption of a notion of equity which…

Attempts to make sense of "English in the New Zealand Curriculum" and, in addition, to reflect on ways in which the document has forced teachers to make sense of or construct English. Describes flaws in the national English curriculum as represented in the document, and notes some positives. (SC)