English Studies - What it Was, and Where it's Going.

This weekend I trekked up the countryside to the Hunter Region to attend #EnglishStudiesDay2016; a wonderful collegial experience driven by passionate English Studies advocate Sam Schroder; one of the architects of the English Studies course during its piloting stage.

One thing that set the tone of the day was the welcome to country provided by a local student, a young Worimi man, who conducted it in his people's language. I don't think I've ever seen a welcome or acknowledgement of country given so beautifully. It really struck a chord with me.   

Anyway, aside from getting the opportunity to network with other teachers, teachers who have such positive opinions of the English Studies course as a forum for authentic engagement with English, the day provided a real moment of clarity in which Sam Schroder provided an overview of what the English Studies course is. Where it came from. Where it's going.

If you're a new teacher you may very well find yourself allocated to the English Studies course, and knowing where it is has come from and how it's continuing to develop is something that will be pertinent to you. And if you're not teaching English Studies, well, it might still be of interest to you anyway because maybe you're awesome like that.

The Birth of English Studies

Prior to English Studies, there was the 2 Unit Contemporary English course. From 1997-1999, the Contemporary English course was phased out to usher in the increasingly complexity of the Standard and Advanced courses. Many teachers were happy to see Contemporary English go as it was widely perceived as a 'dumbing down' of the English course and did not benefit those preparing for university study. Standard English grew out a response to this as a course for students who weren't suited to the Advanced course but would still be going to university and needed to be able to engage at an academic level when they got there.

Two more things then also led the way to the development of the English Studies course:

• In a national content, the Melbourne Declaration of 2008 acknowledged that a set of standards should and would be applied to all Australian students, with two specific goals:

• Goal 1 dealt with equity and excellence, the idea that opportunities should be provided to every child, not just those who wanted to become doctors, lawyers, etc.
• Goal 2 was the idea that all young Australians should become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens.
  
• The other influential factor was that, on a state level, 2010 saw NSW increase the leaving age from 15 to 17.

This means that even those who aren't equipped for Standard or Advanced English should be able to have a scope for success in English, and that's where English Studies comes in. English Studies should be a forum for students to be taught how to be critical thinkers; active citizens who question what they see and are able to communicate their opinions.

How it Happened

In 2009, BOSTES invited submissions for the creation of the English Studies course. 76 schools were selected to pilot the course in 2010, and students at some of these schools had to apply for the class and were considered 'lucky' to get in. This was followed by extensive evaluation, and the Department of Education then invested in the writing of units to support the course. In 2011, the course was rolled out across the state.

After this, things become a little hazy... there is some feeling that the course hasn't been given the support it needs. Non-government sectors have expressed no interest in developing resources, and some schools opt not to run the course in the belief that a non-ATAR version of English has no validity to their communities. The RAP data, however, shows that English Studies is, essentially, doing the job it was designed to do - students who would have gotten Band 1 and Band 2 marks in Standard are instead catered for in the English Studies course.

How it Works Now

There are two mandatory modules. In the Preliminary course this is Achieving Through English, which focuses on the worlds of education, careers and community, and in the HSC course it is We Are Australians, which takes the form of studies on citizenship, community and cultural identity. There is a possibility of crossover with the subject of Work Studies in terms of resume writing (which forms a crucial part of Achieving Through English), however, Sam Schroder suggests that this is a perfect opportunity to engineer cross-curricular study between English Studies and Work Studies, which allows for team teaching and the avoidance of unnecessary repetition across subject areas.

The other modules are elective, with scope for 1 self-developed module in the Preliminary year, preferably something that is appropriate for your school's context. Examples given by some of the teachers in attendance at #EnglishStudiesDay2016:

• Surfing (a coastal school)
• Pig-shooting (a school way out west)
• Indigenous studies (a school with a large indigenous community)

Where it's Heading

The proposed syllabus is currently slated to begin in 2018 with an exam option that allows English Studies to achieve an ATAR, something that (judging from anecdotal and empirical evidence) is unlikely to change before it rolls out. Working in tandem with this is the introduction of a common module across English Studies, Standard English and Advanced English, which is the element of the course that will enable this ATAR option.

Your mileage may vary as far as whether this is a good idea or not. I'm not against it, but I'm also not particularly passionate about it. In fact, I tend to feel this way about most things before they happen - I reserve judgement for when I see things in action. We'll see what happens. What I will say though is that students often change their minds, change their goals, and anything could happen in a student's life between the commencement of Year 11 and the time in which they finish up their high school education - so, therefore, it follows that we shouldn't be locking students out of opportunities just because they've committed to English Studies at the end of Year 10. The allowance of an ATAR option means that students can, right up until the day of the HSC examination, choose if they want to do this or not.

I'm looking forward to seeing how everything goes in 2018.