The impact and content of English as a subject on the curriculum is once more the subject of lively debate. Questions of English sets out to map the development of English as a subject and how it has come to encompass the diversity of ideas that currently characterise it.
Drawing on a combination of historical analysis and recent research findings Robin Peel, Annette Patterson and Jeanne Gerlach bring together and compare important new insights on curriculum development and teaching practice from England, Australia and the United States. They also discuss the development of teacher training, highlighting the variety of ways in which teachers build their own beliefs and knowledge about English.
Robin Peel is Senior Lecturer at the University of Plymouth, Annette Patterson is Senior Lecturer at James Cook University, Australia and Jeanne Gerlach is Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, United States.
'... [a] helpful and beautifully produced book' - IRichard Andrews, European Journal of Teacher Education
'At the level of argument (as opposed to metaphor), the book strikes a pragmatic note. To those still hankering after an Arnoldian or Leavisian role as an English teacher, it offers this practical advice: "Given that English wants to be properly funded and valued, it is proving strategically necessary for English to be more modest and specific in the claims it makes for itself as a subject." The book in its forward-looking way makes much of that "strategically necessary" argument. The book is good then in providing detailed contexts for readers to reassess their own ideas about English and in raising crucial issues.' - Anthony Kearney, Use of English