Category: Pedagogy
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English education in England is shaped by a persistent structural problem: the absence of an explicit disciplinary model. Ofsted’s Telling the Story report identifies the symptoms of this absence—fragile foundational knowledge, inconsistent subject expertise, fragmented literature sequencing, and assessment distortion—but it does not define the epistemic structure required to resolve them. The Discipline of English…
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What if every story is really the same story? A recent lesson began with a challenge to a common assumption in English teaching: that students learn Literature by studying individual texts. Instead, students were introduced to the idea of literary genealogy—the concept that all stories belong to the same enduring tradition and share a common…
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Schools are increasingly recognising that emotional regulation is not merely a pastoral concern but a prerequisite for meaningful disciplinary engagement. In English, where students must navigate complex texts, abstract ideas, and interpretive uncertainty, emotional stability is foundational. This framework introduces the concept of Emotional Touchstones: personal, meaningful physical objects that provide students with cues of…
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As schools prepare for potential closures during extreme weather, English departments must reconsider their reliance on teacher‑led slide decks and instead adopt facilitative learning devices that enable genuine independence.
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The function and purpose of assessing at KS3 is not always clearly outlined, because the questions that need answering are hard. But if they are answered, some of the barriers to good marking can be lifted. It’s a conceptual problem that is worth investing in.
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Teachers need to position themselves as the people writing manuals for complex machines, controlling the language that matches the user, not as people creating an environment conducive to discovery learning.
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The way we perceive Literature is an important gatekeeper to analysing Literature. Metacognition is an important step that departments rarely formalise into actual lessons. But it can be quite simple, and a couple of jokes can really elevate the plinth from which we stand and view the field.
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A quantitative review of respondents to a social media post; what does the curriculum of Literature look like when there is no book present?
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Post-Structuralism has influenced the political and ideological world around us in visible and measurable ways – and handling this concept as a procedure can have significant influence on the critical lives of students.
