Creating and analysing multi-modal texts in English classrooms in open-plan settings

As in other countries, the aims, rationale, and content of the English curriculum in Australia are hotly contested (Edwards, 2010; Green, 2008; Kress, 2006). Teachers disagree about the degree to which equity outcomes for all students are addressed and the extent to which state and national documents enshrine, or should enshrine, past and/or future versions of literacy (Goodwyn, Reid, & Durrant, 2013; Peel, Patterson, & Gerlach, 2000; Turner, 2007). Reviewing state and national syllabi, Golsby-Smith (2013) also noted ongoing squabbles over ideological investments. Enthusiasts for cultural studies approaches, utilitarian/functional, critical, aesthetic, multi-literacy, and economic rationalist accounts jostle for discursive supremacy (Edwards & Potts, 2008; Edwards, 2010). Beavis (2013), Goodwyn (2012) Goodwyn, Reid, and Durrant (2013), and others point out the continued discrepancy between how teachers in Australia and England perceive English should be taught, what should count as learning, and the outcomes embedded in current English curriculum and actual classroom practice.