Subject English as citizenship education

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11159365
AutoresOliver Belas (0000-0001-6592-5467, University of Bedfordshire UK, autor correspondente), Neil Hopkins (0000-0003-0624-8157, University of Bedfordshire UK)
Ano2019
Volume45
Fascículo2
Páginas320-339
Data de publicação2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBritish Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0141-1926 • E-ISSN: 1469-3518
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/berj.3500
OpenAlexW2907063329
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas34

This article is equal parts educational history and political philosophy. We aim to remind readers that subject English (SE) and indeed state education emerge from the contradictory impulses of classical liberalism, and that, more than simply resembling citizenship education, SE emerges in the first instance as a form of highly normativising citizenship education. We further argue that, following England's recent educational reforms initiated by former Education Secretary Michael Gove, SE continues to be framed in moral terms consistent with citizenship education—again, of a highly normativising sort. England's current educational policy generally, and specifically the framing of SE, employs the language of liberal possibility, while ultimately espousing an invidious exclusionary and assimilationist politics. The framing of SE, moreover, is one that misrepresents the supposedly ‘rich and varied literary heritage’ it is supposed to exemplify and promote. The current political landscape in which the study of literature takes place is one where a crisis of liberalism is manifest (in terms of populism, radicalisation or apathy). However, we do not believe the answer is to retreat into a sealed, hermetic canon that excludes the reality that England and English literature are fundamentally multicultural and polyethnic. SE will be the poorer for not fully acknowledging and embodying this, for not enabling students to imaginatively and critically engage with characters and experiences that reflect both the present and long‐standing diversity of English society, as well as its present and long‐standing inequalities

Citizenship · Framing (construction) · Higher education · Liberalism · Multiculturalism · Pedagogy · Philosophy of education · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Gender Studies · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Law