Teaching Australian Gothic as a system of literary analysis can be challenging. Often linked to imprecise concepts that are difficult to identify, Australian Gothic is regularly reduced to 'something weird' or 'just a feeling'. However, the Gothic mode in Australia has established itself as an effective approach and developed some clear strategies…

'Asia literacy' can be loosely defined as having 'some understanding of Asia and its languages in order to engage with it and communicate with its people' (Erebus Consulting Partners, 2002). The Australian Curriculum has prioritised children's development of Asia literacy, specifically through articulating the cross-curriculum priority defined as…

By the late 70s the "growth through English" slogan, derived from John Dixon's account of the Dartmouth conference, had become popular around Australia. In 1980 the Sydney IFTE conference featured several Dartmouth veterans; but during that conference, Dartmouth-linked ideas from overseas mingled with lines of local influence, especially…

Literature is an enduring and distinctive component in English education and reading is central to teachers' conception of the subject. What continues to be contentious are the ways literature is defined and how teachers' values influence what their students will read. This paper is drawn from a larger research study and reports 18 New South Wales…

"Yuta Gonydjuy" ("The New Wax") is a children's story written by Kathy Guthadjaka, an Indigenous Elder from Gäwa, Elcho Island, northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Yuta Gonydjuy has been illustrated and published in both Warramiri and English via the bilingual Literature Production Centre at Galiwin'ku, in 1998.…

In currently dominant accounts, English as a school subject, its content and processes, are construed as an induction into a well-defined, already-established disciplinary discourse or set of discourses. In an attempt to challenge this version of English, I present some examples of autobiographical writing by secondary students and I tell the…

The development of curriculum requires dialogue with both past and future. As the state of Victoria gears up to revise the current study design for Literature, one of three 'Englishes' students can study at senior levels, numbers of students opting to take the subject have dropped over recent years. With high-stakes exam-based assessment dominant,…

This article reports on the effective use of short videos as part of a microlearning strategy aimed at improving student success and satisfaction in an undergraduate literary history course at Flinders University. Although the pedagogical tenets of microlearning ostensibly contradict the deep, sustained critical attention literary study typically…

This paper notes the ways in which conventional texts often construct limited reading positions and/or points of view. It argues that through the use of postmodern picturebooks and an understanding of metafictive strategies (as one aspect of a more complex methodological approach to the analysis of postmodern picturebooks) students are provided…

Although secondary school teachers have long been aware of the pedagogical possibilities of Louise Rosenblatt's Reader Response (articulated first in "Literature as Exploration," 1938) and I. A. Richards' Close Reading (first broached in "The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of…

Psychological trauma is swiftly becoming one of the most significant public health concerns and obstacles to effective education in the current teaching climate. This paper responds to my experiences as both a secondary English teacher and registered psychologist, examining the potential utility of trauma literature in the English classroom for…

This paper outlines a sequence of strategies that are designed to enable every child to experience pleasure in reading narrative literature, and to achieve success in writing, both their own stories and the responses to literature expected by the school curriculum. To enable these goals, literary texts are analysed at three scales: whole literary…

This paper examines the role of literature in the English classroom in Australia and its part in shaping national identity. We contend that it is important to consider the possible roles of national literatures in contemporary school contexts, where students are becoming local and global citizens and argue that reading Australian literature as a…

This short response to the theme of 'Love in English' reflects on the importance of teaching queer and Indigenous literatures within English classes. I share personal perspectives on seeking literature that reflected who I was as a young person developing queer and Indigenous identities. I also share professional experiences from my past English…

Although "VCE English Language (EL)" has been offered for twenty years in Victoria, Australia, the subject, and especially students' experience of it, has had little evaluation. Using data from four surveys conducted across seven years with over 1500 Unit 3-4 "EL" students, augmented by VCAA enrolment data, a profile of…