Senior English before the VCE
The VCE English Study Design was a long time in the ‘making’, well before the official starting date for its development in November 1986 with the first meeting of the VCAB English Field of Study Committee (FOSC). One can see its beginnings in many of the 44 senior English studies that existed pre-VCE. They reflected elements of good theory and practice in language and learning that had engaged the English teaching community throughout the late 70s and early 80s, even going back to the influence of the 1966 Dartmouth seminar and John Dixon’s Growth through English. The importance of productive talk in learning, valuing the students’ experiences, collaborative and experiential learning, writing for real purposes and audiences, the changing nature of texts for study (films and media particularly), developing courses based on the perceived needs of an increasingly diverse student cohort, assessment based on models other than external examinations. They reflected, too, the influence of national and international educators such as James Britton, Douglas Barnes, John Dixon, Nancy Martin, Connie and Harold Rosen from the UK, Donald Graves and James Moffett from the USA, and Garth Boomer, Ian Reid, Gerry Tickell, Tony Delves and Jack Thomson, among others, in Australia.
This was true particularly of the many accredited school/teacher developed non-mainstream courses such as STC, TOP, T-12, English B. A good example is the way in which the Production unit in English B transformed into the VCE English Communication Project. But their influence was also present in the mainstream Group 1 English, the externally assessed English requirement for university entrance, particularly with the introduction of the Options units, teacher/school developed and assessed, statistically moderated against the core, and accredited by VISE. There were five options in the final six year accreditation of the course: Writing workshop, Oral Communication, Focus on language, Language development through social analysis, and The writer’s self.
As well, many teachers working in the 7-10 curriculum area were familiar with the work of the above educators and were well-versed in incorporating their ideas into their practice. Delves and Tickell published a series of resources, Themes and Responses. David McRae and Bill Hannan produced a companion piece, English 7-10: a Draft to their Senior English: A Course of Study. This pattern of a simultaneous complementary development of 7-10 and senior curriculum resource materials can be seen in the Englishworks series (CUP) , many of them co-authored by VATE members – Brenton Doecke, Douglas McClenaghan, Helen Parr, Michael Hyde, Mary Mason, Johnny Kesselschmidt, Peta Heywood.
Suggested reading list (items available in VATE office):
- English Group 1, Core 89-12-009, Optional Units 89-12-009 A/E, VCAB (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board), 1987: ISSN 0158-8613
- English B Group 2, Group 2, 84-12-085, VISE (Victorian Institute of Secondary Education), 1982: ISSN 0159-8562
- ‘A good bit of common sense’, interview with David McRae, and ‘Three perspectives on the Senior English course by Gerry Tickell (‘A major breakthrough’), a student teacher involved in course development, and two HSC students in The Secondary Teacher, No. 3, April, 1981 – a feature on education and social class. This special issue also contains an article on education and social mobility by Dean Ashenden and colleagues, the latter based on research that was eventually to lead to the publication of Making the Difference: schools, families and social division, a hugely influential publication that reflects thinking about social justice and education at that time. See Connell, R.W., Ashenden, D.J., Kessler, S., and Dowsett, G.W. (1982), Making the Difference: schools, families and social division, North Sydney: George Allen & Unwin.
- STC (1985), A series of ten booklets about Year Twelve Curriculum: English, Participation and Equity Program, Schools Resource Program: ISBN 0 7241 3891 9
- STC and the VCE - Supplement to 'STC Newsletter', No. 3, 1987
- Carozzi, Barry, ‘Technical Year 12 – English in Another Place’ in Assessment and Learning in English. A collection of views about how the assessment of learning in Senior English is best undertaken, edited by C.L. Reynolds, VATE, 1984, ISBN: 0959177817
- Hannan, B. and McRae, D. (eds) (1982), English 7-10 – a draft, Melbourne: Australasian Educa Press Pty Ltd: ISBN 0 86787 008 7
- McRae, D. et al (1980), Senior English: A Course of Study, Melbourne: Department of Language and Literature, Melbourne State College