‘...to read people differently’.: The purpose of English Literature in English secondary schools

ABSTRACT

This article takes Margaret Meek Spencer’s 1988 pamphlet “How Texts Teach What Readers Learn” to frame a discussion about the purpose of English Literature in English secondary schools. The primary data informing this article is taken from original interviews with ten Heads of English departments in English secondary schools. Henri Lefebvre’s framework of conceived, perceived and lived spaces is used to analyse the data to understand how the Heads of Department conceptualise the place and purpose of English Literature in their schools. The views of the Heads of English are then discussed in light of Meek Spencer’s work, highlighting how the current curriculum for English Literature produces a subject which is at odds with her ideas and contemporary views of the English curriculum and its purpose. The article concludes with some suggestions about how the teaching of English Literature in schools can be developed so that it is more in line with Meek Spencer’s ideas, is more socially just and more ambitious.

KEYWORDS:

• English teaching
• English literature
• secondary school curriculum
• Henri Lefebvre
• Margaret Meek Spencer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Perry

John Perry currently works on the Secondary English 11-18 PGCE course at the University of Nottingham. He previously taught English in secondary schools for over twenty years and was a secondary school headteacher.