The Professional Journal of the National Association for the Teaching of English Issue 23 June 2012 All Talk English 14-19 All Talk supports GCSE English study of both Spoken Language and Speaking and Listening, and A level English Language. The All Talk website includes 15 units with supporting classroom materials including teacher and student hand-outs, video clips, transcripts, web links and teacher notes – everything you will need to support teaching and learning about spoken language all free to download from www.bt.com/alltalk For information about our free nationwide CPD courses contact [email protected] www.bt.com/alltalk Special issue: English, Sexuality and Gender Also: Grammar and Writing, Part 2 Alltalk-Nate-Feb2012.indd 1 10/02/2012 07:09 NATE Collections English Teaching Now FREE to all NATE members By popular demand, Collection 6 has now been added to this valuable archive of contemporary thinking, ideas and activities in NATE articles. COLLECTION 1: Writing – inspiration and craft KS2, KS3 and KS4 COLLECTION 2: Reading and responding to fi ction KS2, KS3, KS4 COLLECTION 3: Reading and responding to poetry KS2, KS3 and KS4 COLLECTION 4: Promoting the enjoyment of reading KS2 to KS5 COLLECTION 5: Shakespeare KS2 to KS5 COLLECTION 6: Speaking and Listening KS2 to KS4 These collections of NATE articles, available as one The collections are gathered around the areas of complete fi le (pdf), downloadable free of charge from interest most prevalent over the past fi ve years of the Members’ Area of the NATE website, are drawn publication. The themed articles – 15 to 20 in each from the three NATE periodicals: collection – will be invaluable to: • magazine NATE Classroom • all teachers who want to plan a half-term series • professional journal English Drama Media of lessons on a relevant theme • peer-reviewed research journal English in Education • to Heads of English who are planning Inset on (these articles are referenced only – accessible by all a given topic NATE members on the Wiley Blackwell page directly • to PGCE or English Education lecturers who from the members’ area of the NATE website, and with want to bring themselves and their students a direct link to one sample article in each collection) up-to-date on aspects of current practice This series, absolutely free of charge to all NATE and research members, is also available to non-members at a cost of • to consultants or curriculum leaders who want only £12.50* per collection from the NATE bookshop to refresh their own thinking, or garner fresh at www.nate.org.uk. The fi rst three collections approaches and ideas. available now are listed above; further collections will be available soon – see www.nate.org.uk for updates. (*price correct at time of going to press, subject to change without notice) NATE Classroom 16 60-61.indd 61 08/02/2012 11:18 Contents Editor Gary Snapper 2 Editorial Advisory Group 4 Briefing Adrian Beard, Sue Brindley, David Buckingham, Paul Bunyan, Andrew Burn, Gabrielle Cliff Hodges, Features James Durran, Sue Dymoke, Janet Evans, Anne Fairhall, 13 The Importance of Being … Out Elaine Millard, Ruth Moore, Sean McEvoy, Jonothan Neelands, Why Sexuality Matters in English Helen Nicholson, Mark Reid Chris Waugh reflects on his experiences as a gay English teacher, arguing that openness about sexuality is crucial in the English Design Neil Baird, Dokumenta Limited classroom. Layout and Production Matt Storr 19 Some Students Are Gay Printing Buxton Press Limited Tackling Homophobia in English NATE Administration Lydia Malmedie outlines ways in which English teachers can help tackle Anne Fairhall (publications manager); homophobia in schools, and describes resources available from Ian McNeilly (director) Stonewall. ISSN 1742-5514 25 Other Cultures, Other Sexualities? Including Sexuality in Secondary English Helen Sauntson and Kathryn Simpson reflect on the extent to which the English curriculum provides opportunities for teaching about Cover Image: Still from the BBC TV series Torchwood, featuring John sexuality. Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd, copyright BBC Photo Library. 31 Truths Universally Acknowledged Reading for Gender in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Jack Williams reflects on teaching his all-male Year 11 class about constructions of masculinity in ‘Pride and Prejudice’. English Drama Media is the professional 37 Women’s Work? journal of NATE, the National Association for the Teaching of English Perspectives on Gender and Learning in English published three times a year in February, John Hodgson explores male and female views of English at university June and October. The views expressed in the magazine are those of the authors 43 ‘Knowledge About Language’ Revisited and do not necessarily reflect those of The Impact of Teachers’ Linguistic Subject Knowledge on the Teaching the association. of Writing Contributions to the journal are Researchers from the Grammar for Writing project explore the welcome. Notes for contributors may be found at www.nate.org.uk. classroom impact of teachers’ linguistic subject knowledge. The editor may be contacted at [email protected] Review 51 Subject Matter Reflections on Curriculum and Assessment • Keith Davidson reflects on the difference between speech and writing • Ben Knights reflects on the work of the English Subject Centre 54 Media Studies NATE English in the News 50 Broadfield Road, Sheffield, S8 OXJ • Tom Rank reports on recent media coverage Telephone 0114 255 5419 [email protected] 56 Further Reading Reviews of Books and Resources June 2012 Editorial Sexuality, gender and English edition, one of the things that makes this stubborn prejudice more resilient and potentially more crushing The main theme of this edition of EDM is the relationship than others is that so many have to suffer it alone. Gay between sexuality, gender and English teaching – focusing children do not generally have gay parents, only rarely on attitudes to homosexuality; the ways in which such have gay siblings, and are very likely not to have gay attitudes are constructed and perpetuated through friends; they may well have no-one to turn to, no forum approaches to gender and sexuality in schools and for finding reliable information, support or affirmation. As society; and some of the things that might be done by Chris argues, English is the place where such students are Gary Snapper English teachers to fight against homophobia and to build teaches A Level perhaps most likely to find such affirmation. Similarly, English at the communities where potentially damaging stereotypes of because of the silence which so often surrounds sexuality Cheney School, sexuality can be acknowledged, explored and overcome. in schools (and outside), English is the place where Oxford, and is a freelance teacher, There is relatively little written on this crucial topic in homophobic children are perhaps most likely to have consultant and professional literature in the UK, and even less that takes their assumptions and prejudices challenged. The researcher. He is a on board contemporary theories about sexuality in opportunities English offers for exploration of member of the NATE Post-16 formulating effective ways of dealing with such issues in representations of sexuality in literature, and in culture Committee. In a the English classroom. The leading commentator on this and language more generally, are invaluable. previous existence topic in the UK, Viv Ellis, contributed a timely and original he was Head of Chris’s article is a passionate, personal, and English at article to the very first edition of EDM (in 2003) – Beyond exceptionally well-written reflection on being a gay Impington Village Legz Akimbo: Sexuality and School English after Section 28 English teacher, on being open about sexuality, on why College, – which aimed to explore new ways of thinking about Cambridge. sexuality matters in English, and on the importance of sexuality and English. Since then, EDM has rarely returned honesty and trust in the English classroom. If you read to questions of sexuality and gender in English – so this only one article in this edition, I recommend it be this edition aims to begin to make up that deficit. one. There are of course many other questions about gender Following Chris’s article, Lydia Malmedie, the education and English that we might want to explore, and which are officer at Stonewall, outlines some of the work that undoubtedly related to questions of sexuality – for Stonewall has done in recent years in highlighting the instance, the ways in which sexism still manifests itself in issue of homophobia in schools, and gives details of the English classroom and curriculum, the extent to which resources which Stonewall provides to help English feminism has changed things, the ways in which language teachers, and others, to approach issues of sexuality. In and literature betray the patriarchal structures of society, particular, she discusses FIT, the highly acclaimed play for the implications of the under-achievement of boys in young people, by Rikki Beadle-Blair, commissioned by English, and so on. A future edition of EDM is planned to Stonewall for the theatre and now released on DVD – a explore some of these avenues. superb resource for English. Kathryn Sauntson and Helen Simpson’s article takes as Tackling homophobia in English its starting point the way in which questions of race and gender have gained visibility in English classrooms, whilst Despite the enormous progress that has been made in questions of sexuality are often neglected. They discuss recent years in relation to positive representations of and findings from their research, in which they interviewed attitudes to gay people (see for instance Torchwood’s Jack teachers and students about their experiences in the and Ianto featured on our cover), it sometimes seems that classroom, and examined the English National Curriculum, homophobia is the one remaining prejudice of the ‘big to find out why such a situation might pertain.