As this issue of the Newsletter lands in your pigeonhole, spring will have arrived, however beleaguered by late frosts, storms or even snow. Whether or not the forsythia or daffodils have now faded, you’ll know the seasons have turned as your students beat a path to your door in fretful (or perhaps languid) preparation for their exams and essays. As your teaching winds down and you begin to think about exam boards and the summer conference season, take a moment to regroup by immersing yourself in the pages of Issue 14. In Arran Stibbe’s helpful overview, you can find out about Education for Sustainable Development, and why it is central to how we teach Creative Writing, English literature and English language. Consider the challenge of understanding the first-year experience, as Susan Bruce transports us to the scene of a classroom, where learning is analysed through speech, gesture and gaze. Dip into the interview given by National Teaching fellow Alan Rice, whose American Studies work as a teacher and researcher joyously and forthrightly exceed the bounds of ‘English’ – indeed he reminds us what a rich group of subjects ours is. Steve May details his research into the degree expectations and experiences of Creative Writing students around the UK and beyond. He tells how his own practice has changed as a result of what he discovered. Ben Knights and Jonathan Gibson report back on a round table discussion on the topic of close reading and where it figures in current teaching practice. As you read these varied articles you may notice how the idea of practical criticism makes repeat appearances. Indeed, this foundation stone of English studies in the 20th century (and beyond) gets critiqued, admired and casually referenced depending on which of our authors you read.
Further on in the issue you will find our regular features, including Brett Lucas’s column IT Works! where you can learn about some of the latest web-based technologies to support and animate your teaching; Book Reviews contributed to this issue by Peter Barry and David Bausor; Desert Island Texts with ‘castaway’ Chris Ringrose and the new commentary column The Last Word. In this issue’s The Last Word, Mick Short, a new member of the Subject Centre’s Advisory Board, provocatively questions the forked path that now seems to divide English literature from English language.
Since the last Newsletter, it has been a busy period for the Subject Centre. You can quickly catch up on some of the many events we have held over the past eight months in our Event Round-Up, while more extensive event reports are available on our website. There are also several new mini-projects which have been funded, that we’ll report on in the next issue, but you can find out about them now on our website’s Project pages. We are delighted to report that Teaching Holocaust Literature and Film, edited by Robert Eaglestone and Barry Langford, has recently been published; it is the sixth volume to appear in the book series we edit for Palgrave Macmillan, Teaching the New English.
Do you have an opinion about our subject? Perhaps you have an idea for a Last Word commentary? Do you have a book on teaching you’d like to review or an article in a previous issue of the Newsletter you wish to respond to? If so, please get in touch. The Newsletter’s success, like our work in general, is down to your generosity and commitment to working with us. Good luck with those exam boards and conference papers.
Nicole King
Editor
