Access All Areas? Literature and Education

Abstract

As subject tutor of a Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) secondary English course, my role is both ‘gate-keeper’ to the teaching profession and advisor on the development of professional subject knowledge. In many ways, my teaching now takes place at a highly privileged intersection of conflicting pathways through English as a subject, where the political implications of various definitions of ‘subject knowledge’ are enacted as principles to be either inflicted upon or implemented for the benefit of the learners of the future. The postgraduates I work with each year bring so many varieties of ‘English’ with them that it is impossible not to be humbled by the sheer range and pluralistic diversity in their personal learning experiences.