English and the knowledge question

Abstract

This essay poses the question of the role that literary knowledge plays in subject English. It thus engages with current debates, largely prompted by Michael Young’s call to ‘bring knowledge back in’, about the need to restore academic knowledge as the basis of the school curriculum. We take issue with Young’s understanding of knowledge, arguing that it privileges propositional knowledge at the expense of the interpretive activities typically associated with literary studies, and thus fails to provide a valid framework for supporting students as they read and engage with literary texts. We focus on two moments in the history of subject English, namely the Newbolt Report (1921) and John Dixon’s Growth Through English (1967), showing how they embody understandings of the nature of ‘knowledge’ and ‘experience’ as they are mediated by language that provide a significant counterpoint to Young’s arguments.

Keywords:

• Literary knowledge
• English curriculum and pedagogy
• history of subject English
• the Newbolt Report
• growth pedagogy

Notes

1. The two research projects on which this essay draws are:

Project title: Pilot Project: Investigating Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers (2015). Funding: Melbourne Research Office Researchers: Larissa McLean Davies (University of Melbourne), Lyn Yates (University of Melbourne), Wayne Sawyer (Western Sydney University), Brenton Doecke (Deakin University), Philip Mead (University of Western Australia), John Yandell (University College London), Andy Goodwyn (University of Bedfordshire).

Project title: Investigating Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers (2016–2019). Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP160101084). Researchers: Larissa McLean Davies (University of Melbourne), Lyn Yates (University of Melbourne), Wayne Sawyer (Western Sydney University), Brenton Doecke (Deakin University), Philip Mead (University of Western Australia).

2. Fiona is a pseudonym.