Deakin University
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

As if they could be otherwise...finding spaces for creativity in the enacted curriculum

chapter
posted on 2011-01-01, 00:00 authored by Joanne O'MaraJoanne O'Mara
This chapter inquires into four very different Australian middle-school classrooms where teachers are innovating their practices and developing new approaches to aspects of English curriculum. These classrooms from diverse settings (one middle-class urban, one elite private inner urban, one regional disadvantaged, one middle-class regional) have all taken imaginative leaps and reworked their curricula to put the students’ needs at the centre. At one school, Year 8 students design, make and play their own computer games, at another Year 6 students script, design, craft and shoot their own claymation film; at another, Year 9 students use videogames as texts in their literature studies; and at another, a group of Year 6 students work with a theatre company and their teachers to rework Shakespeare into a contemporary, accessible, enjoyable performance. The chapter considers how in each case these different approaches engage and extend the students in meaningful and relevant ways. The chapter includes a mix of teacher and student interview data, principal data and teacher writing. The chapter investigates how each of these projects worked to achieve its aims and discusses how the single national curriculum might be re-envisioned in local contexts.

History

Title of book

Creating an Australian curriculum for English : national agendas, local contexts

Chapter number

11

Pagination

155 - 168

Publisher

Phoenix Education

Place of publication

Putney, N. S. W.

ISBN-13

9781921586538

ISBN-10

1921586532

Language

eng

Publication classification

B1 Book chapter

Copyright notice

2011, Phoenix Education

Extent

16

Editor/Contributor(s)

B Doecke, G Parr, W Sawyer

Usage metrics

    Research Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC