Abstract
ABSTRACTSince its publication in 1921, The Teaching of English in England, otherwise known as the Newbolt Report, has informed both the shape of English as a school subject and the discourse about the teaching of English in England. The 1960s saw the report as promoting a cultural heritage rooted in outdated social values; the 1970s explored how it encouraged a version of personal growth through a love of literature. The 1980s returned to issues around social class, which were further developed in the 1990s. More recently there has been a limited reappraisal of the Newbolt Report, crediting it with introducing the modern discourse around English teaching. This paper argues that a deeper understanding of the Newbolt Report would allow teachers to become more engaged with the discourse about English teaching and re-connect this with their values.
Highlights
The history of teaching English in England is the history of The Teaching of English in England (Newbolt 1921)
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Newbolt Report has been interpreted over the years since its publication after the First World War
The Newbolt Report effectively built the scaffolding for the school subject of English as we know it today; secondly, it helped to establish the discourse around the teaching of English in the English school system and the discourse about education itself (Doecke and Mead 2017)
Summary
The history of teaching English in England is the history of The Teaching of English in England (Newbolt 1921). A government-sponsored response to deeply felt concerns about the purpose of English in schools in a climate of national uncertainty, the Newbolt Report, as it is more often known, identified key tensions that exist to this day about the place and purpose of the subject in English schools. The discourse around the teaching of English in the English school system has been characterised by discussions about the relative significance of Language versus Literature; whether English is a utilitarian subject, or a creative one; what is the place and purpose of grammar; what is the relationship between English and assessment; who teaches English; and the relevance of the curriculum to pupils and other interested parties.
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