Simon Gibbons

Back to the future? A case study in changing curriculum and assessment: The story of the London Association for the Teaching of English’s Alternative ‘O’ Level English Language Paper

Abstract In the early 1950s, the London Association for the Teaching of English (L.A.T.E.) became increasingly concerned about the syllabuses and examination papers for GCE ‘O’ English Language and English Literature. Worried about the potentially adverse effects of the London Board’s papers on children’s learning, teachers’ practice and curriculum design, L.A.T.E. worked with interested schools to draft, write and submit an alternative GCE syllabus and examination paper for ‘O’ Level English Language. This article is an account of that process, and its possible resonance for the subject community in the present day.

How L.A.T.E. it was, how L.A.T.E.

Abstract The London Association for the Teaching of English is a subject group that was founded in 1947 to ‘provide a live forum for the exchange of ideas, and to undertake the practical study of problems connected with the teaching of English’. The early history of this Association, its influence on the development of English pedagogy and practice is the subject of my current PhD research. Within this work are key questions about the nature of subject English, the curriculum, and the ways in which members of a subject community work together to effect change. This article gives some background to the research project, and begins to point towards some potentially important questions about the subject and ways of working together. After two decades of top down, centralised government initiatives around English pedagogy, curriculum and assessment, and teachers’ professional development, these questions are worth addressing.

The Aims of English Teaching: A View from History

Once again, the National Curriculum orders for English are being rewritten. The writers of the new curriculum have looked to the education systems of ‘high-performing jurisdictions’ for inspiration. The result is a curriculum draft that offers a limited view of the subject and one which apparently fails to prioritise the needs of the learner. The model of English developed in the postwar years by those working within the London Association for the Teaching of English (LATE) offers a very different view of the subject. The Aims of English Teaching is an early document articulating LATE’s vision of the subject; this article offers a reading of this document and suggests that there may be much in this history to draw on as teachers are apparently offered more freedom to design their own programmes of study.

‘To know the world of the school and change it’ An Exploration of Harold Rosen's Contribution to the Early Work of the London Association for the Teaching of English

Sadly, I cannot claim to have known Harold Rosen personally. I was fortunate enough to hear him speak on a number of occasions, but I can’t even claim, in any meaningful sense, to have met him. Though in many ways I regret this, it has not diminished in any way the extent to which he has influenced my personal and professional development as a teacher of English, nor does it undermine the extent to which I feel his influence has been profound in the development of English pedagogy and practice more widely. As a PGCE student at the Institute, I came to Harold through his contribution to Language, the Learner and the School (Barnes, Britton, and Rosen 1969). This text changed the way I saw myself as a teacher, and changed forever the way I thought about what goes on – or what should go on – in the best English classrooms. It is still the text I recommend above all others to students each year on the PGCE courses on which I have taught. Published under the banner of the London Association of the Teaching of English (LATE), my reading of the text led me directly to active involvement in LATE, an involvement that has had a defining influence on both my professional and personal life. Leaving aside some more personal benefits (I will not be the only person to have met their spouse through the Association’s activities), fifteen years of professional involvement with LATE have culminated in my current PhD research, which aims to recount the history of the Association, evaluate its influence on the development of post-war English teaching and consider the potential contemporary significance of aspects of its work. I have commented elsewhere that the LATE story is an underexplored and at times misrepresented area in the field of subject English history, and I have given there some fuller details of my work (Gibbons 2008); the current reader need only really know that central to the project are interviews with colleagues involved in the Association in its first two decades, and extensive archive materials comprising – amongst many types of document – conference reports, meeting minutes and correspondence. For an English teacher, to explore the archive of documents relating to LATE’s work during the period from its foundation in 1947 to the birth of the National Association (NATE) in 1963 is by turns inspiring, thrilling, sobering, and even – given recent and current contexts – depressing. The capacity shown by members of the Association across school and university sectors to work collaboratively for the betterment of English education is seemingly boundless; the sheer number of voluntary hours given to the development of study groups, the organisation of conferences and the publication of research-based reports is staggering; and the

A Methodological Conundrum: Comparing Schools in Scotland and England

This article considers a conundrum in research methodology; the fact that, in the main, you have to use a social science-based research methodology if you want to look at what goes on in a classroom. This article proposes an alternative arts-based research method instead based on the work of Eisner, and before him Dewey, where one can use the more traditional critical, close reading techniques that are usually associated with a degree in English. We look at a case study English lesson to illustrate and explore how this may be done.

'The fun we had and the way we went about it': Is now the time to learn lessons from L.A.T.E.'s past?

Abstract In the United Kingdom there appears to be a move to reduce the influence of ‘top down’ or centrally driven teaching and learning reforms in favour of returning control to schools and teachers to make necessary improvements at a local level. In this context, ideas about ‘professional learning communities’ or ‘communities of practice’ are potentially fruitful. This article, drawing on the author’s own research, suggests that if we are to take subject English into a life beyond the National Strategies, it would be worth our remembering how one English ‘community of practice’– the London Association for the Teaching of English – helped to shape one model of the discipline.

English Teachers in a Postwar Democracy: Emerging Choice in London Schools 1945‐1965 P. Medway, J. Hardcastle, G Brewis, D. Crook, New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2014) ISBN: 9781137005137 £55.00 (hardback)

I should probably begin by declaring a certain lack of impartiality with respect to this publication. Having been part of the advisory group for the Leverhulme Trust funded research project that ultimately resulted in this book, my view may be influenced by knowledge of the many, many hours of painstaking research that went into this engrossing historical study of English teaching in three London schools. That said, what follows is my honest appraisal of the work and I hope I can be trusted as professional enough to offer that despite my connections to the project.