The Big Picture
Subject English across Secondary and Tertiary education in WA
This research focuses on some of the most pressing concerns in Subject English at this moment in time: the crisis in Literature study across the state, and the standards of English within the wider disciplinary space.
About the project
This project seeks to review the state of teaching in Subject English at both secondary and tertiary levels of the discipline in Western Australia. It is targeting three key areas:
- Creative Writing Pedagogies
- Text Lists and Teacher Choices
- Discipline Intersections: Mapping concepts and standards between secondary and tertiary English in WA
Working across these areas, the project seeks to understand the challenges faced by educators, and identify some of the possible reasons interest and enrolment in Subject English is declining. It hopes to improve the collaborative relationships within the sector, increase professional support for educators and foster pedagogical conversations around creative writing in particular.
The project will ultimately aim to support educators in the discipline through the production of a set of teaching resources, developed and offered as a MOOC available free to all through UWA.
Currently, the resources under development include interviews with creative practitioners for classroom use, TED-talk style mini-lectures on key curriculum concepts, and resource packages supporting both subject knowledge and educational practice.
Goals
- To facilitate research into Subject English pedagogy
- To provide critical support to teachers of Subject English throughout the state
- To improve the standard of Subject English education in Western Australia
- To increase student engagement with Subject English at secondary and tertiary levels
- To foster communication and collaboration between teachers of Subject English.
The team
- Lead Chief Investigator
Chief Investigators
- Associate Professor Tanya Dalziell, Professor Tony Hughes-D’Aeth, Dr Catherine Noske, Josefine Wang.
Online Resources
The Big Picture project is a research project that examines issues related to subject English in Western Australia at both secondary and tertiary levels. In light of the current circumstances with social distancing and the move to online learning, we have created online units for WA senior secondary students. The units work within the WA Curriculum and are linked to the ATAR English, ATAR Literature or the General English syllabi.
Units include video lectures by UWA faculty, online lessons and guided investigation tasks. They are intended for teachers to incorporate into their own teaching programs, but can also be followed by individual students.
The University of Western Australia and The Big Picture Project acknowledge the English Teachers Association of WA for supporting this project.
- General English
-
Exploring Pop Culture Connections in Self Made
Exploring Humour with Upper Middle Bogan
- ATAR English
-
Exploring Form and Perspective: Fyre
Recognising and Writing Voice
- Deb Fitzpatrick lecture
- Voice lecture 1
- Voice lecture 2
- Voice lecture 3
- Voice Lecture - Going Beyond the Syllabus
Interpretive Storytelling: Self Made
Recording Voices and Perspectives through Podcasts
Representation
Transformation and Adaptation
- ATAR Literature
-
Intertextuality
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience in Context
Wuthering Heights: Close Reading and Continuing Relationships
Reworking Othello (with resources from UWA and Harvard University’s EdX course)
- Lectures
News
- A Tale of Two Educations
- The West, posted 14 September 2020
- Students miss out as some WA high schools drop literature as a subject
- PerthNow, posted 23 May 2018
- PerthNow, posted 23 May 2018
- Is the senior school English reading list too dark and depressing? This mother thinks so.
- ABC Radio National, posted 6 December 2017
Our partnerships
The English Teachers Association of Western Australia have joined the project as funding partners, and will be supporting the development of the teaching resources which are produced.
The School Curriculum and Standards Authority have been involved in supporting the project through the provision of (redacted) curriculum and teaching materials. This data has helped us build a picture of the state of English and Literature in WA.