This paper reads the U.K. Government's "fundamental British values" project alongside two children's Gothic novels, "Coram Boy" (2000) by Jamila Gavin and "City of Ghosts" (2009) by Bali Rai. In 2011 the U.K. Government outlined what it described as "fundamental British values" (FBV), making it a requirement…

This article asks historians of education to think about the influences that we bring to bear on our work. It uses, as an example, Carolyn Steedman's book "The Tidy House: Little Girls Writing" (1982). "The Tidy House" set out to interpret a short story written by three primary school girls in Britain in 1976. Steedman…

Through an analysis of three settler narratives about new lives in Spain, Stewart (1999), Kerr (2000) and Lambert (2000), the paper explores three elements of these intercultural narratives that contribute to the formation of the settler's new sociocultural identity: the physical environment, explorations of the other through signs of the…

Selected from the reference library of current children's books housed at the National Book League in London, the 323 books in this annotated bibliography reflect the author's personal selection of those works which seemed most worth noticing from the publications of 1971. Books are categorized into picture books, fictional stories for five to…

Selected from the reference library of current children's books housed at the National Book League in London, the 323 books in this annotated bibliography reflect the author's personal selection of those works which seemed most worth noticing from the publications of 1972. Books are categorized into picture books, fictional stories for five to…

Examines English language pattern poetry from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Commonwealth countries, and the United States. (FL)

Discusses the creation of "The Encyclopaedia of School Stories," a two-volume reference work on the much-loved but much-derided genre of school stories (with their single-sex cast and emphasis on values like honor, loyalty, and playing the game). Describes the origins of the project, and some of the decisions and experiences of the team…

Discusses the difficult and painstaking process of researching the lives of the writers of girls' school stories for "The Encyclopaedia of School Stories," published in the summer 2000. Notes that frequently, very little was known about the authors, and often existing information was inaccurate. Offers details of the encyclopaedia and…

In examining "authenticity to school life" as a criterion for judging school novels, the author looks at the extent to which the writers themselves have considered this important. He focuses on the period 1906-1930, when a fashion arose for some novelists to attack earlier school novels as untrue. (SJL)

This analysis of the British domestic situation comedy (sitcom) as a genre begins by noting that it is considered basically taxonomical, using the categories of character, narrative, and theme to develop understanding of its discursive strategies. Considered to be preliminary and tentative, the results of this analysis suggest that: (1) the sitcom…

Examines the sociolinguistic and structuralist traditions of English teaching in Great Britain. Suggests a curriculum systhesizing elements from these two traditions and a progressive/arts tradition. (ARH)