Larissa McLean Davies – författare

At a time when knowledge is being ''re-valued'' as central to curriculum concerns, subject English is being called to account. Literary Knowing and the Making of English Teachers puts long-standing debates about knowledge and knowing in English in dialogue with an investigation of how English teachers are made in the 21st century.

This book explores, for the first time, the role of literature in shaping English teachers’ professional knowledge and identities by examining the impacts, in particular, of their own school teaching in their ‘making’. The voices of early career English teachers feature throughout the work, in a series of vignettes providing reflective accounts of their professional learning. The authors bring a range of disciplinary expertise and standpoints to explore the complexity of knowledge and knowing in English. They ask: How do English teachers negotiate competing curriculum demands? How do they understand literary knowledge in a neoliberal context? What is core English knowledge for students, and what role should literature play in the contemporary curriculum? Drawing on a major longitudinal research project, they bring to light what English teachers see as central to their work, the ways they connect teaching with their disciplinary training, and how their understandings of literary practice are contested and reimagined in the classroom.

This innovative work is essential reading for scholars and postgraduate students in the fields of teacher education, English education, literary studies and curriculum studies.

At a time when knowledge is being ''re-valued'' as central to curriculum concerns, subject English is being called to account. Literary Knowing and the Making of English Teachers puts long-standing debates about knowledge and knowing in English in dialogue with an investigation of how English teachers are made in the 21st century.

This book explores, for the first time, the role of literature in shaping English teachers’ professional knowledge and identities by examining the impacts, in particular, of their own school teaching in their ‘making’. The voices of early career English teachers feature throughout the work, in a series of vignettes providing reflective accounts of their professional learning. The authors bring a range of disciplinary expertise and standpoints to explore the complexity of knowledge and knowing in English. They ask: How do English teachers negotiate competing curriculum demands? How do they understand literary knowledge in a neoliberal context? What is core English knowledge for students, and what role should literature play in the contemporary curriculum? Drawing on a major longitudinal research project, they bring to light what English teachers see as central to their work, the ways they connect teaching with their disciplinary training, and how their understandings of literary practice are contested and reimagined in the classroom.

This innovative work is essential reading for scholars and postgraduate students in the fields of teacher education, English education, literary studies and curriculum studies.

This is a time of challenge for teachers with burgeoning workloads and unsustainable conditions, parental demands and challenging student behaviour. Within this climate of challenge, including that of teacher retention, education systems around the world have had to develop strategies to professionalise and improve the status of teaching.

Divided into three distinct sections covering the future of teacher professionalism, reimagining pedagogical practices in challenging contexts, and professional learning to meet the needs of the profession, Critical Conversations in Teacher Education explores issues across the lifespan of teaching, including initial teacher education and in service professional learning. Drawing on research conducted broadly in the Australian educational space, chapter authors discuss the areas of culturally responsive practice, AI, climate change, classroom environments, micro credentials, and teacher retention.

The research covers a wide range of settings, from early childhood through to primary and secondary settings as well as exploring a wide range of topics that are of interest to educators both in schools and at a system level and offers valuable considerations for shaping the future of the teaching profession.