How and why do the ideas of the nineteenth-century critic and educator Matthew Arnold continue to influence education today?
Category Archives: English
Media bans and ‘media literacy’: a dissenting view
Rumours of our demise…
The numbers of students opting for specialised courses in Media Studies and English Literature in the UK have been in decline for several years. How might we explain this, and how can we respond? Continue reading
Teaching Culture: The Missionary Position
The attempt to civilize the uncultured masses is coming back into style. I look back to the Leavisite approach to popular culture, and its place in the history of English teaching.
Revisiting ‘Popular Culture and Personal Responsibility’
Revisiting a key moment in the early history of media education in the UK, and its legacy in print..
Raymond Williams on Culture and Education 3: Communications
Revisiting three key texts from sixty years ago: what do they have to say to us today?
Raymond Williams on Culture and Education 2: The Long Revolution
Revisiting three key texts from sixty years ago: what do they have to say to us today?
Raymond Williams on culture and education 1: ‘Culture and Society 1780-1950’
Revisiting three key texts, published sixty years ago. What do they have to say to us today?
Media in English – reasons to be cheerful?
As media education has effectively disappeared from the government’s prescriptions for English teaching, what are the prospects for the future? An interview with two experts in the field, Jenny Grahame and Steve Connolly.
Changing English – Disappearing Media
Media education has been eradicated from the English (mother tongue language and literature) curriculum in England. Why has this happened, and what consequences will it have?
