Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School ... English

The Centrality of Language in Learning

David Stevens

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780415565042
• eBook ISBN: 9781136898068
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What is the role of the individual school 'subject' and 'subject teacher' within school? Is it to teach a set of core subject knowledge, skills and understanding in a way that remains faithful to long-standing subject cultures and pedagogies? Or is there another way to consider how the curriculum and the notion of individual subjects and teachers' pedagogy could be constructed?

Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School ... English brings together ongoing debates about personalised learning, creativity and ICT in education to establish a clear theoretical framework for cross-curricular teaching and learning in English and literacy. Presenting an appropriate pedagogy for cross-curricular teaching that draws on this framework, it promotes radical new approaches to English teaching as part of a widened curriculum through practical examples and theoretical discussions, blended with engaging stories of current practice.

With links to other curriculum subjects and current education policy, features include:

• theoretical examination of key issues;
• assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of different curricular models;
• clear principles for effective assessment;
• a wide range of case studies;
• summaries of key research linked to suggestions for further reading;
• professional development activities to promote cross-curricular dialogue.

Part of the Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School series, this timely, interdisciplinary textbook is essential reading for all students on Initial Teacher Training courses and practising teachers looking to holistically introduce cross-curricular themes and practices in secondary English teaching.

CHAPTER 1
The contexts for cross-curricular teaching and learning in English

Historical contexts

In recent years, perhaps because of the paradoxical and contested nature of their subject, English teachers in secondary schools have become increasingly used to living with externally imposed strictures on the content and even the delivery of English. The National Curriculum, ushered in by the 1988 Education Act and, for English, substantially revised several times since, could be seen as the instigator of much of this development. The National Curriculum, and much of what has followed in its wake (particularly the methods used to assess and record pupils’ and schools’ achievements, and the various National Strategies) could be seen as a reaction to the rather piecemeal nature of the secondary school curriculum before 1988, in the sense that what was taught, especially in a subject like English whose practitioners defended, and frequently defined themselves by, their right to safeguard individuality in teaching and learning, depended on the particular qualities of the teachers concerned. Some of these teachers were excellent: creative, thorough and highly effective; others less so (I remember distinctly noticing this division during my early English teaching experience in the 1980s). Much about English teaching prior to1988 was, however, positive: new examination syllabuses at sixteen and eighteen, based largely on coursework, opened up exciting opportunities for effective and innovative teaching of both language and literature, increasingly integrated at all levels. At the same time, pioneering work was going on in English departments in a range of other areas: speaking and listening; integration with drama; media education; active approaches to literature, including Shakespeare; awareness and knowledge of the workings of language; and (especially apposite here) collaboration with other curricular subjects.

English teachers, with commendable skill but not a little embattlement, have by and large managed to convert threats into opportunities: not only to live with the official curricula, but actually to make them work positively. The most recent revisions of the National Curriculum, for English as for the other school subjects, are now firmly embedded in classroom practice, largely uncontroversially despite what D’Arcy (2000: 30) has described as ‘the increasingly formalistic emphasis’ and a rather more terse, instructional tone than that used previously. The latest manifestation of the National Curriculum, instrumental for Year 7 from 2008–9 and for subsequent secondary year groups over the respective following four years, has included much of the National Strategy (initially the National Literacy Strategy) within itself, although the ‘Renewed Framework’ for secondary English also sits alongside (at least until 2011), reinforcing key areas, including, notably, cross-curricular concerns. This new curriculum is itself rather more fluid than its previous manifestations, a characteristic underlined by its availability only online, where any revisions or amendments are also publicised. Significantly in the context of the present exploration, the new curriculum seeks actively to promote cross-curricular teaching and learning, especially through its ‘creativity’ and ‘cross-curricular’ strands, thus resurrecting the facet of the curriculum that many felt had attracted merely lip service in 1988.

Curriculum initiatives, even when unwelcome, have served to focus attention on the nature of English teaching: why the subject has such a prominent place within the curriculum, and what to do with it once it is there. This is not some esoteric debate undertaken solely by those professionally involved in the teaching of English: for better or for worse, education has been opened up to an unprecedented degree to the wider public – New Labour’s battle cry during the 1997 General Election, ‘Education! Education! Education!’, for example, clearly struck a chord with the electorate; subsequent developments have borne this out, even when (or perhaps especially when) governmental policies have been contentious. With good reason, most people feel that they have something to contribute to the education debate, based either on their own remembered education or on their children’s continuing schooling, in a way unlikely to apply, say, to the processes and professions of law or medicine. The position of English is perhaps even more relevant here, in that the English language is almost universally shared (to some extent at least) by the citizens of the UK and virtually everyone feels a degree of expertise. In a sense, of course, there is validity in this feeling – after all, language is by its very nature owned by those who use it, and the learning of spoken English is achieved without any formal teaching – but these same people would perhaps be less likely to pronounce upon the nature of art, geography or mathematics in education. The special position of English teachers in this context presents an opportunity both to influence opinion and to draw on existing views, and the subject’s very breadth makes it all the more apposite for an interdisciplinary turn; but it is an elusive opportunity, all too easily missed.

There is not the space here to describe or analyse in detail the history of cross-curricular initiatives in the secondary school curriculum for England, or the particular place of the subject English in these previous attempts. Nevertheless, it could be helpful to look briefly at what has been tried during relatively recent years, what sort of successes have been recorded, and what may be the pitfalls – if only so that we may learn something concerning which mistakes could be avoided in any new developments. Essentially, we need to look at cross-curricular policies and practical initiatives in general, and focus particularly on the role of the subject English in fostering language across the curriculum initiatives.

The Bullock Report

The official report A Language for Life (DES 1975), generally known as ‘the Bullock Report’, is a helpful place to start, signalling as it did the first rigorous attempt to explore and define the nature of language in education, across all phases, and to make specific recommendations as to how schools and others concerned with education should implement the findings. The report, the culmination of exhaustive research and deliberations of the government-established committee chaired by Alan Bullock, carried considerable weight both at the time and for several years after. When I studied for my PGCE in English in 1978–9, our lecturer enthusiastically held up a copy of the report and pronounced that it encapsulated the future of English teaching and its positive impact across the curriculum: I distinctly remember him dramatically encouraging us novice teachers to worship the golden Bullock – and he was only half joking. We were impressed, and not just by the theatrics. And yet when I started teaching English in a comprehensive school a few months later, of Bullock there was no mention, and of cross-curricular initiatives, language-inspired or otherwise, there was precious little either. The crucial question about Bullock and all language-focused whole-school initiatives, then as now, as James Britton presciently realised in 1977 (in Praedl 1982: 190), was and is ‘Amid all the talk of “literacy” and “evaluation”, both very narrowly conceived, can it survive to keep before us a more enlightened view of language and learning?’

What had Bullock recommended that was so welcomed? And why was his impact so limited? As far as the secondary phase was concerned, the recommendations were indeed radical and potentially far reaching; pertinent in the present context, they included, under the heading ‘Principal Recommendations’:

Every school should devise a systematic policy for the development of reading competence in pupils of all ages and ability levels.

Each school should have an organised policy for language across the curriculum, establishing every teacher’s involvement in language and reading development throughout the years of schooling.

Every school should have a suitably qualified teacher with responsibility for advising and supporting his colleagues in language and the teaching of reading.

There should be close consultation between schools, and the transmission of effective records, to ensure continuity in the teaching of reading and in the language development of every pupil.

English in the secondary school should have improved resources in terms of staffing, accommodation and ancillary help.

Every LEA should appoint a specialist English adviser and should establish an advisory team with the specific responsibility of supporting schools in all aspects of language in education.

A substantial course on language in education (including reading) should be part of every primary and secondary school teacher’s initial training, whatever the teacher’s subject or the age of the children with whom he or she will be working.

There should be an expansion in in-service education opportunities in reading and the various other aspects of the teaching of English, and these should include courses at diploma and higher degree level. Teachers in every LEA should have access to a language/reading centre.

There should be a national centre for language in education, concerned with the teaching of English in all its aspects, from language and reading in the early years to advanced studies with sixth forms.

Children should be helped to as wide as possible a range of language uses so that they can speak appropriately in different situations and use standard forms when they are needed.

Competence in language comes above all through its purposeful use, not through the working of exercises divorced from context.

In the secondary school, all subject teachers need to be aware of: (i) the linguistic processes by which their pupils acquire information and understanding, and t...

Table of contents

• Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning in …
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1 The contexts for cross-curricular teaching and learning in English
• CHAPTER 2 Language, principles and purposes for cross-curricular teaching and learning in English
• CHAPTER 3 Intertextuality, generic interplay and ICT for cross-curricular teaching and learning in English
• CHAPTER 4 Assessment and evaluation of cross-curricular teaching and learning in English
• CHAPTER 5 Cross-curricular approaches: English and the humanities
• CHAPTER 6 Cross-curricular approaches: English and the arts
• CHAPTER 7 Cross-curricular approaches: English and modern foreign languages
• CHAPTER 8 Cross-curricular approaches: English, mathematics, the sciences, and physical education
• CHAPTER 9 The future potential of cross-curricular teaching and learning in English: a sense of direction
• Appendix: helpful websites
• References
• Index