English Teaching: Practice and Critique
Dis-lodging literature from English: Challenging linguistic hegemonies
Terry Locke (University of Waikato, New Zealand)
Stephen May (School of Education, University of Waikato, New Zealand)
This paper problematises the location of
literature “teaching” within the English (L1) curriculum, as is the
case in New Zealand and other settings. It defamiliarises this
arrangement by drawing attention to official New Zealand policies of
biculturalism and to the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity
in many New Zealand classrooms. It identifies a number of social
justice issues arising from the current arrangement, and also raises
issues in respect of educational policy and ways in which canonical
subjects become constructed in practice. It then discusses ways in
which a new qualifications template developed at the University of
Waikato might provide a vehicle for establishing a new arrangement, in
terms of which literature study is dislodged from English and reshaped
as a course of study entitled Literature in Society. It indicates ways
in which Comparative Literature, as a predominantly
university-constituted discipline, might contribute to the theorisation
of this new arrangement.