Problems and Pressure-Points
History and Contexts
The 'sacred space' model outlined above, though based on actual responses from student teachers, is an ideal and even utopian model. But it does represent the best of what student teachers themselves have experienced at post-16 and as such it should inform our aspirations as well as theirs. But the utopian impulse can lead to a dangerous assumption that needs to be faced in discussion and which will be addressed in these pages later.
- This is the assumption that post-16 literature teaching is somehow more 'natural' than at GCSE and at university and, being 'natural', will therefore need no training to be able to deliver.
- What follows from this assumption is the belief that student teachers, remembering the inspiring sessions they themselves experienced, merely have to walk into the post-16 classroom armed with their favourite book from university for the magic of the sacred space to be automatically materialized
To counter this natural assumption it is as well for student teachers to be encouraged to 'place' post-16 literature teaching in a different way from that explored above: in terms of context and history.
The simplest point about the recent history of English post-16 in England and Wales is that the subject, which used to be whole, has been for many years now splintered into three different and indeed competing 'specifications'. Some student teachers may be of an age to hear this with surprise. Others, younger, may have come from schools and colleges where no choice among the three specifications was offered.
'English' A-level in England and Wales used to mean 'English literature'. For many years there has been no 'English' A-level. There are three:
- English Literature
- English Language and Literature
- English Language
This splintering is best seen as a response to a perceived set of problems around literature and young people.
- The notion that literature is 'difficult' and increasingly not 'relevant'
- The perception that younger teenagers are no longer reading in the way that they used to
From September 2010 the GCSE English regime changes with potentially adverse impact on the uptake of literature and thereby on A-level literature numbers. Schools from 2010 will enter candidates:
- Either: for both of two separate GCSE awards, GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature
- Or: for one GCSE award, GCSE English (which has very limited compulsory literature)
The fear already being expressed by teachers, authors and commentators is that the literature GCSE will be restricted to the academic elite, thereby marginalizing literature at a time when its crucial role in the enrichment of young lives and as the entitlement of every student need more and more emphasis. It's clearly too early to tell, and the upside is that the new specifications for the literature GCSE look like offering a richer and more challenging diet than hitherto, but there is bound to be an impact of some kind on recruitment to A-level literature. It may be that the revised and improved literature GCSE feeds into enhanced recruitment.
- Student teachers will be well-advised to take soundings about these issues in their placement-schools. Do their school English departments operate a policy of restricting the 'double' GCSE English entries to those predicted grade A or A*?
There is, unsurprisingly, scope for confusion among students and parents when moving from GCSE to A-level English.
Two assumptions have often been made:
- That English Language A-level would be appropriate to less academic students than English Literature because of the assumed continuity, particularly in creative writing opportunities, between English Language A-level and GCSE English which will presumably continue to be the necessary qualification demanded by universities and employers
- But English Language A-level is seen by many centres as the most demanding, the most theorized and the most wide-ranging of the three A-levels. Carol Atherton (2004, p.32) is not alone in having been struck by the 'depth of theoretical sophistication required' of English Language students
- That English Language and Literature A-level would, being apparently integrated and holistic in its view of the subject, in time prove the fastest growing of the three and sustain numbers across the board. It would also prove the best grounding for university English
- But English Language and Literature A-level is widely perceived by teachers to be the least demanding of the three A-levels and the least effective preparation for university English. Centres that offer all three regularly steer their less able students towards it and entry requirements can often be lower
- It is, even given the best will of teachers, a hybrid and not a holistic experience
- It has proved the least popular of the three as the figures below indicate
After a period of worrying decline in English A-level entries generally from 1997 to 2003, the picture is now more healthy.
- The total across all 3 A-levels has risen from 79,747 candidates in 2003 to 91,815 (provisional numbers) in 2009. But these figures disguise significant differences between the three A-levels
- Literature has held steady from 2001-2008 at around 51,766 in 2008
- Language has grown sharply from 14,416 in 2002 to 20,649 in 2008
- Language and Literature has grown from 14,687 in 2002 to 17,221 in 2008
- Literature remains easily the largest cohort: 58% of the 2008 total as against 23% for Language and 19% for Language and Literature
- If Language continues to grow it's a moot point whether it will be at the expense of Literature or of Language and Literature (the latter seems more likely)
What follows on the next webpage is a critical discussion of the two major developments in A-level literature since 2000
- Curriculum 2000 (2000-2008)
- The post-2008 curriculum
