‘A Chart for Further Exploration and a Kind of Rallying Call’: James Moffett and English Curriculum History in Victoria

Abstract

Both James Britton and James Moffett were keynote speakers at the Sydney International Federation for the Teaching of English conference in 1980 – a fact reflective of the wide recognition and acceptance of their work and influence throughout Australia by that time. In Victoria, Moffett's writings became known initially through teacher education, in particular at the University of Melbourne and the State College of Victoria, Rusden, then through the visits and writing of figures from the London Institute and others, and through the State and national English teaching association, the Australian Association for the Teaching of English. In the 1970s, Moffett's influence in Victoria came rather through the mix of his vision and writing, both theoretical and practical, in conjunction with others in Australia and elsewhere. This paper takes two separate but related sites or moments in English education in the 1970s in the Australian city of Melbourne, Victoria, as instances of the permeating influence of Moffett's work – in conjunction with leading figures from the London School associated with the ‘New’ English’ – on education discourses and practice in that State's English curriculum history. It concludes with a consideration of the ways in which Moffett's work might still act as a ‘rallying call’ today.

Keywords:

• curriculum history
• subject English
• teacher education
• writing
• literacy
• James Moffett

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Bernard Newsome and Margaret Gill for their generous accounts of this period, and to Ron Goodrich, editor of the Feldeschrift of Newsome's writings presented to him on his retirement from Deakin University in 1992 (Goodrich 1992).