This one-day event hosted by the Department of English Studies at the University of Stirling aimed to complement a similar event, ‘The first year experience of English’, held at Bristol in 2005. The event aimed to draw attention to the particular challenges which arise in teaching first-year English in Scottish universities, where such factors as the younger intake age, and separate guidelines for curriculum and assessment at secondary level, present challenges somewhat different from those encountered in England.
The event organisers were keen to foster a dialogue between schools and universities, and were therefore delighted that a number of local schoolteachers were able to attend. The day was organised as a series of themed sessions, each of which was led by a speaker who spoke briefly before opening up the topic to general discussion.
Following introductory remarks by Ben Knights, Peter Paterson, a Principal teacher of English from a local High School, began the day by presenting an overview of the content and assessment procedures of Higher English in Scottish secondary schools.
This was of particular value for the university lecturers in attendance, many of whom had only a sketchy understanding of the Scottish Highers system. Paterson was candid about the strengths and limitations of the Higher and Advanced Higher curricula, and clarified, in particular, the drawbacks of an inflexible system of continuous assessment. The recent tendency in Scottish educational policy towards nurturing the development of the ‘whole’ student was not felt to augur serious changes for English.
Scott Hames (University of Stirling) and Suzanne Trill (Edinburgh University) then discussed some of the challenges faced by English departments in managing the transition from school to university, as well as some of the efforts made by the respective institutions to meet these challenges. These included an unwillingness on the part of first-year students to engage critically or closely with literary texts (poetry in particular), and a more general resistance to the notion that English is an academic discipline with a rigorous critical method with which students ought to be conversant; instead, intuitive and highly subjective approaches to literary study seem to predominate.
Student attitudes to the research process were also highlighted as a depressingly familiar area of concern, with many students favouring ‘cut and paste’ modes of approach. In both talks, as well in the discussion that ensued, all participants emphatically stated that teachers were in no way being ‘blamed’ for the study habits of those school-leavers who go on to take English at University; indeed, the issues raised as problematic by university teachers were precisely those encountered by teaching colleagues in High School. It was felt that the modes and methods of assessment imposed by the Higher English curriculum, as well as a waning interest in books (in comparison with other forms of culture) were felt to be partly to blame for these ‘deficits’. Scott Hames ended his session by suggesting that the disorienting and sometimes painful student ‘transition’ from school to university might in its own way be a productive experience of ‘unlearning’; given their often divergent pedagogical aims, a certain discontinuity between Highers and the first year of English studies at university level might in fact be desirable.
The historical neglect of Scottish culture at secondary level leads to a clear domino effect, wherby students are interested in, and stimulated by, material they are woefully ill-equipped to understand in relation to its own specific cultural context.The two afternoon sessions focused directly on issues specific to the Scottish educational context. Graeme Trousdale (Edinburgh University), an English Language specialist and an examiner for the Language module of the Advanced Higher in English, discussed the relative neglect of English language within the English Studies curriculum at Higher level. In England and Wales, English Language has its own A-Level; in fact, English Language is the fastest growing A-Level in terms of its recruitment. In Scotland, by contrast, English language is embedded in the English Higher curriculum, featuring, when it does, in far more implicit forms. Because many English teachers are graduates of English literature departments, they often lack both the confidence and expertise to promote the language modules - a fact attested to by some of the High School teachers in attendance. Thus, the cycle of neglect perpetuates itself. In the following discussion, colleagues from Glasgow University’s English Language department reiterated this problem, stressing the distinct disadvantage faced by those Scottish students wishing to pursue a language path through their English degree. An increased proficiency in language, its forms, uses and structure, is an aim explicitly articulated by the Scottish Executive’s National Statement for Improving Attainment in Literacy in Schools, yet the English Higher has some way to go before this aim is realised.
The final session was led by Jim McGonigal (University of Glasgow) who discussed the place of Scottish literature, culture and language in the English curriculum. Beginning with a review of recent efforts, at both school and University level, to undo the historical marginalisation of Scottish writing within the discipline of ‘English’, the talk connected general concerns from earlier on in the day to particular issues pertaining to the study of Scottish literature and language. Since, in the words of Alan Riach, ‘Scotland’s cultural self-determination has been formed, threatened, affirmed, broken, dissolved, re-configured and debated from various positions through history’, students’ ability to historicise texts sensitively is crucial, but often found wanting. The historical neglect of Scottish culture at secondary level leads to a clear domino-effect, whereby students are interested in, and stimulated by, material they are woefully ill-equipped to understand in relation to its own specific cultural context. Representatives from the Association for Scottish Literary Studies gave an overview of recent campaigns to ensure Scottish pupils gain greater access to their national literary tradition at school-level.
In the closing discussion, clear conclusions or strategies for reform were understandably difficult to formulate, but all participants nonetheless felt that the day had offered an important awareness-raising function. For instance, the possibility of involving more teachers with Continuing Professional Development courses run by Scottish universities was raised, particularly in relation to English Language. Teachers and lecturers resolved to maintain a dialogue with one another, primarily in the interests of informing and illuminating each others’ pedagogical practices in the future.
