About us
Purpose and Philosophy
The English Subject Centre, now part of the Higher Education Academy and funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils, is one of twenty-four Subject Centres (collectively known as the Subject Network) covering the main academic areas in UK Higher Education. The Network is grounded in the recognition that the best way to enhance the status of teaching in Higher Education, and to advance its practice, is through the subject itself.
Activities
The Subject Centre supports, by a variety of means, all those who teach in Higher Education English. The Centre runs events about the teaching of English, the curriculum, and the key aspects of national policy that impact upon the teaching of English. It sponsors both small and large projects concerned with the development of the subject's teaching and learning. It collects and disseminates quantitative and qualitative information of relevance to English. Its span of work covers all aspects of the teaching of English at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
The
Subject Centre is both proactive and responsive, so we are pleased
to receive suggestions, and we always
attempt to answer enquiries as quickly
as possible. The philosophy of the Subject Centre is the belief
that the practice of the subject itself is the most secure foundation for
the development of the subject and its teaching and learning. The Subject
Centre seeks to encourage
exchange of views and teaching models that are underpinned by good and proven
practice, as well as intellectual and pedagogical theory and research.
The Subject Centre is aware of the need to be sensitive to the different institutional contexts in which English is taught. What 'works' in one place may not be appropriate for another. At the same time, we believe that practice can always be enhanced by a process of exchange; that the opportunity to understand how others work is always productive of reflection and development; and we recognise that, like research, teaching is not, nor should be privatised.
The Centre has a good spread of expertise in its staff, but the richest repository of expertise is in the subject community as a whole. Hence the need to develop a network, and an understanding of enhancement based not on regulation, but on an outward-looking, self-reflective and self-determining philosophy of improvement.
Please use this website to discover materials and ideas which will help you to negotiate these challenges in ways which enhance the learning experiences of your students.
