Volume 2, Number 2 (September 2003): Focus: Textual Diversity

Co-editors: Joanne O'Mara (Deakin University, Australia) and Linda Laidlaw (University of Alberta, Canada)

Rationale: This issue of the Journal contains selected papers from the Literacy and Textual Diversity: English as Cultural Studies strand of the International Federation of English Teachers Conference, held in Melbourne from 5-8 July, 2003.This strand, convened by Catherine Beavis, Jo O'Mara and Bill Green, had a series of papers presented around working sessions. Both the work of the strand and some of the papers presented will be represented in the journal. In the late 20th century and 21st century, English and Literacy curriculum has been seriously challenged. These challenges come from changing views of text and reading, reflected in the incorporation of a much wider range of visual and non-print texts and literacies, by technology and popular culture, and a shift from print to digital literacies which have been described by Bill Green as a major shift in the subject's organising apparatus. Further, the role of literature in promoting civic and national cultural identities has been thrown into question in a climate where schools and society are composed of people with multiple cultural and ethnic histories and identities, and a recognition of the politics of texts in challenging or maintaining the status quo. In such a context, what place do texts have in the English and literacy curriculum? What kinds of texts and literacies should be the focus of study? How do the arts, and aesthetic, practical and performance approaches contribute to the production of the student citizen? What polarities might/should exist between high and popular culture? Where kids are reading different texts, and reading differently, how can we/should we bring these out-of-school literacies and knowledge back into the school? To even speak of English as cultural studies is one way of signalling what English teaching is, and what it might do and be differently. The issue asks readers to consider what English has been as well as what it might become, and the place and relationship of what have traditionally been conceived of as core components, along with new aspects and dimensions of culture, textuality and schooling.

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