Module 1
Journal Entry 1
Wednesday 27th February 2013
My Bio Introduction in The Virtual Staffroom
Hello to all
I am completing the Master of Teaching through Monash Gippsland; my methods are
English and ICT. I am a librarian by trade, a Charles Sturt University graduate, and currently I
am the Head of Information Services at Salesian College in Chadstone Victoria. My
librarianship has taken me to schools, special and public libraries, however the most
memorable experience was as a visiting librarian at the International Criminal Court in Den
Haag in 2007, assisting in developing their law resources. It was also enormously satisfying
to be back on The Netherlands and to speak again in my mother tongue, Dutch; still
inherently there from my childhood. To be able to continue working, I have chosen to study
in part-time of campus mode, and although I have done this before, I will miss collaborating
with fellow students in a face-to-face setting. In 2012 I completed two literature subjects
with OUA for entry into this course; 19th Century English and Australian Literature, and I
enjoyed both the readings and the history associated with those literature periods. I have
been involved in education for over 20 years (yes I am no spring chicken!), however I know
there will be support from the school I work in and from my tireless, retired husband who
will help with meals, late night snacks (?) and a comforting shoulder. I will undoubtedly
enjoy my ‘time off’ from work and study when I can catch up with my gorgeous grandsons (3
and 9 months). A great deal of my information background has involved the discussion and
study of literacy and information literacy and I am very much looking forward to putting
these in the context of the study of English. Noting from the booklist there is a great deal
more for me to learn! I am looking forward to chatting with you all on the forums. Good
Luck with your studies. Joyce Sendeckyj
Reflection
Forgot to mention teaching Library Studies to adult TAFE students in 2008.
Journal Entry 2
Saturday 02March13
Reflections on Overview
I constantly need to READ, REFLECT AND RESPOND and build my knowledge base
Then
DISCUSS, CRITIQUE AND REFLECT on
LANGUAGE, LITERACY and TEACHING
I need to reflect on MY OWN experiences of English and POSITION this in the light of
CURRENT THEORIES so as to be able to teach ALL students
Reflection on Assignment 1:
I like these quotes from (Link from Assignment 1)
http://www.community.education.monash.edu.au/englished/Becoming-Teacher/becomingteacher.html
!. becoming a teacher
To learn to teach is also to tell a story of what learning to teach ‘does’ to and for [preservice] teachers. In this effort [ie. to tell the story], the narrative impulse bumps up against
the work of not quite knowing if the story can do justice to the emotional experience of
learning itself.
(Britzman 2003, p. 10)
2. Britzman is one of many educators who advocate teachers using writing, especially
reflexive narrative writing about practice - ie. reflecting not just on the self but also on the
institutions, cultures and contexts which mediate this practice. She explains how this sort
of writing can be used to prompt and focus a teacher’s professional learning.
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Title:Practice makes practice : a critical study of learning to teach
Author:Deborah P. Britzman 1952Subjects:High school teachers -- Training of -- United States ; Student teaching -United States
Relation: Series: Teacher empowerment and school reform.
Publisher: Albany : State University of New York Press
Date: 2003
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Edition: Rev. ed.
Format: xiii, 289 p. 23 cm.
Language: English
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifier: ISBN: 0791458504 (pbk. : alk. paper) ;ISBN: 0791458490 (alk.
paper)
Contents: Introduction to the Revised Edition -- 1. Contradictory Realities in
Learning to Teach -- 2. The Structure of Experience and the Experience of
Structure in Teacher Education -- 3. Narratives of Student Teaching: The
Jamie Owl Stories -- 4. Narratives of Student Teaching: The Jack August
Stories -- 5. Discourses of the Real in Teacher Education: Stories from
Significant Others -- 6. Practice Makes Practice: The Given and the Possible
in Teacher Education -- 7. "The Questions of Belief": The Hidden Chapter of
Practice Makes Practice
And the further references from reading above:
(See Dennis Atkinson’s 2004 article, ‘Theorising how student teachers form their identities
in initial teacher education,’ in British Educational Research Journal, 30.3, June, pp. 379-394,
for a discussion of reflexive narrative writing.
See also Parr & Bellis, from the options on the next page.)
What I constantly need to keep in mind:
Define these terms
LANGUAGE LITERATURE LITERACY
ENGLISH
How do the readings INFORM or ALTER my understanding of these terms?
LANGUAGE
Communication
LITERATURE
The written word
LITERACY
Understanding the written word and being able to be coherent communicating the language
of the written word to others
ENGLISH
A language
Journal Entry 3
Sunday 03March13
LANGUAGE
LITERATURE
LITERACY
ENGLISH
Reading questions:
1. What do I remember about becoming literate?
Readers such as ‘John and Betty’ and ‘Dick and Dora’ at school. It was not a problem
to learn English at the age of four; probably picking up some from other children and
adults. In my first kinder at migrant hostel, I remember being frustrated with the way
they did things, but I do not remember having a problem with understanding
instructions. There must have been children talking many European languages.
2. Who was significant in helping you learn to read?
I do not remember anyone significant, however my parents read and spoke in
English and Dutch, and I do not remember having a problem differentiating between
the two.
Emmitt, et al. (2010)
The reading contemplates that children learn language; that is to read language and to write
language within their own social contexts. I found it very interesting to broaden my thinking
to what the reading relates to as “multiple modes of meaning-making in three spheres of
our lives: our personal, work, and public lives” (Cope & Kalanztis 2000, cites in Emmitt,
2010). I have realised, in my studies into Information and Communication Technologies (my
other method) that our emergence from late last century into a digitally networked and
electronically wired world has sparked the discussion of ‘multiliteracies’ and media literacy
to add layers of complexity to literacy. I now also must consider the values I bring to
teaching and the classroom, although my beliefs are to respect each other and respect the
views of others, I need to work to take seriously all social and political aspects of the
classroom as I bring language and literacy to the students and ask them to question their
world with me. Hopefully as students develop their context of language, they will go
through the increasingly more complex stages of “code-breaking”(Emmitt, 2010) to the
complex and creative “text analyst” (Emmitt, 2010). The Emmitt reading relays that teachers
should be aware that cultural understanding may take more time for some students, this
certainly was the case when I attended Kindergarten for the first time in Australia at the age
of four. I believe the teachers found very little response from me as I grappled with my first
experience of deciphering the English language equivalents to my mother tongue, Dutch. It
is interesting in my recollections of my early years at school, that I do not remember having
a problem with the reading and writing of the English language , as I learnt it ‘by the book’.
My parents were multilingual, however their English was, in the early years after migration,
laboured, but adequate. As a secondary teacher, it will be a challenge to firstly understand
all the social and cultural contexts that a class can bring to the studies of English and English
Literature and secondly to guide students to understand and critically analyse all forms of
writing in meaningful contexts, taking into account the ideas and beliefs of the individual.
Anstey and Bull (2004)
In answer to Anstey’s first reflective question, I recall learning to use xhtml and html markup language or code to write and create internet publications. It was a new semiotic system
with not only new symbols and but also strict rules, standards and conventions, otherwise
there was no meaning given to the publications on the web.
Journal Entry 4
Monday 04March13
What does it mean to be a ‘literate citizen’?
If you are literate, you understand, converse and are able to write (once this is learned)
coherently in your first or birth language. To be literate does not necessarily mean in
English, however it is my belief, from experience and observation in schools and the
community that it seems easier for non-english speakers that are literate in their first
language to more rapidly and fluently develop an understanding of English.
What are the dominant ideas surrounding literacy in 2013? Should they be challenged? If
so how?
As Anstey and Bull (2004) relate there is a need for teachers to understand students and
the special contexts of their situation in order to develop appropriate “theory of literacy
teaching and learning”(Anstey & Bull, 2004, p.5). The Emmitt reading talks about literacy
and its implications socially and politically as giving an empowerment, especially for
students to “participate in a critical democracy” and gaining “ skills and knowledge to
critique the world” (Sweeney in Emmitt et al. , 2012, p.205). The challenge is to endeavour
to equitably distribute this literacy empowerment to the greater students for the greater
good.
What are schools’ aims for ‘literacy’ in the 21st century?
The digital and social networking age has made the teaching of literacy more complex than
ever before. Students now need to understand not only the language of the written and
spoken word, but also the language, symbols and structures of the internet and electronic
and digital applications; the ‘texting’ language has already evolved as a distinctive entity.
What are society’s expectations for ‘literacy’?
Schools and teachers must aim to develop in their students an understanding and
appreciation of ‘media’ and ‘multiple’ literacies alongside the literacy of the English
language. Society in the 21st century has educational expectations of the broader issues of
literacy, including ethics, as will be required for the building of strong, humane and
educated communities.
Are the two complimentary?
Theoretically, the educational system and the broader society, I believe, are working
towards similar goals, however the pace of changes in the last 40 years may have left
schools, possibly through slow curriculum change and economics, out of step with teaching
our students an ‘holistic’ idea of literacy.
Illesca (2003)
As mentioned earlier, I was introduced to English as a child not quite four years old and
developed a fluidity in English, to which point I enjoyed the reading and writing experiences
in secondary education and wrote quite prolifically. However, like Illesca, I was made to feel
different as a migrant, especially in secondary education, and was called a ‘wog’; my
Scottish friend was also a ‘wog’ as were my German and Sri Lankan friends. To know English
was to have a right of reply; it was, and still is, very important as a social status. I feel
Illesca’s article, although born of genuine hardship, is negative to the extent that, in
Australia, although sometimes biased to “European colonisation and exploitation” (Illesca,
2003), we do afford opportunities; and as Illesca herself relates that the power of literacy
and language are the key to finding our “voices” (Illesca ,2003). In my experience in school
settings and certainly at the multi-cultural secondary college I work in, every opportunity is
investigated as is humanly and educationally possible for the best outcomes for students,
especially in their communication and English literacy needs.
Published to Virtual Staffroom Monday 3 March 2013
Journal Entry 5
Fri 15th- Sat 16th March
Doecke and Parr (2005) Chapter 2 - Belfin
Starting with Natalie’s comments about her ‘journey’ in her pre-service year:
It seems that Natalie found that the formulating and asking of questions and important
precursor to finding answers.
p.19 to encourage intellectual, affective and social engagement with teacher education
experience
p.19 Making sense of learning experiences
p.20 learning continuum
Natalie – reflections look back on experience/hindsight. We build on history
For Natalie question were important to frame reflections in her own mind
p. 21 narrative writing “position teachers as significant contributors to research”
“publish”
Uni-researcher and teacher-researcher partnerships
Critically reflective narrative writers & reflexive narrative (non-feeling)
P23 evidence of diversity of research perspectives
Me – narrative or storytelling or reflection on the practice and theory (and the interweaving thereof) is important to teachers, researchers and ultimately students.
What are your expectations of this journey?
Growth with experience. Enjoyment of learning with students
What are your responses to the ‘cultural myths’ discussed on p.30?
Constructing a professional identity, ‘cultural myths’ are an integral part of the practicalities
of teaching, however they are not intrinsic to the heart and soul of your teaching identity.
sim·u·la·crum
a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance.
an effigy, image, or representation: a simulacrum of Aphrodite.
pal·imp·sest
noun
a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make
room for another text.
p.35 see Etienne Wenger “our knowing”
narrative writing raises “epistemological questions”
e·pis·te·mo·log·i·cal
adjective
pertaining to epistemology, a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature,
methods, and limits of human knowledge.
How do you see yourself constructing your own personal identity as a
teacher?
With foundation of my beliefs and values. Adding professionalism life experience and
engagement mixed with respect and interest in the students
Doecke and Parr (2005) Chapter 3 Scott Bulfin
Using Scott’s comments as a basis for discussion:
How do you think other teachers will ‘seek to position you’ as a pre-service
and early career teacher? Why?
Conversations discourse and dialogues. Dialectic of personal-private and public-political
p. 42Idealism?
“ Need to suss out the unwritten and unspoken to fit in with different policies, processes,
discourses & relationships”
Me; teacher culture and clique of experience some speak in terms of survival bulfin’s
concerns for teacher education and research
P43 lack of time ie for reflection, dialogue of teaching & learning
Bulfin believes more reflective and explorative writing is needed
What sort of ‘values, histories etc’ will you bring to the profession?
p.48 ‘thinking, feeling, believing and valuing in ways that are recognised as characteristic of
teachers’ me : what is this and can idealism and individualism exits in this?
Bulfin believes sharing experiences and writing them down is conducive to finding identity
from your own perspective and (sometime differently) those of other teachers.
“value of collaborative learning experiences”
p.49 “intergenerational dialogue that occurred strengthened (bulfin’s) View of teachers as
legitimate knowledge professionals” discussions with Professional Identity and Change
(PIC)
“ a couple of us younger teachers?”
p.50 what are the “cultural tools”? Scott speaks of? journal writing?
Barbara Comer’s reflection p50 – 51 are valid questions, new teachers need to reflect on
current practice and experience and combine with their own convictions and idealisms
P 50 The involvement of PIC “gave us ways of seeing ourselves as writers , learners and
knowledge producers rather than simply the subjects of others’ writing and research.
What do you think are the discourses that will seek to ‘silence’ you?
How will you find your voice?
Careful with Terminology ie ‘old and young’ or experience and inexperienced would be
better I bring life experiences and educational experience.
What steps can you take to maintain your ‘sustained dialogue’ (p.43) with
each other? Blogs?
Read the exchange on pp.44-45
What are your responses to individual teachers being caught up ‘larger
structures of state’ (p.45)
probably can’t avoid being caught up in the larger structure but
p.45 “writing our way to meaning” differences between macro (institution) and micro (the
teacher)
What would you as a professional teacher do in these circumstances?
How do you maintain your principles and not act out of step with other
colleagues?
Rigorous professional dialogue
Corollary natural consequence
p.54 – 55 Collaborative and exploratory writing and ideas from students
“dialogue about possibilities”
p.55 “ The extent to which these different conversational spaces mediate the kinds of
language practices, communications and relationships that is certainly worth further
consideration”
p 56
reflective writing and dialogue between colleagues and students only becomes useful
learning experiences are about “self-reflective, practice-based inquiry that contributes to
our knowledge as a profession”
“action that must be both practical and critical”
Doecke, B., & Parr, G. Chapter 10 – Gill
p.152 “part of my role is to students develop confidence in using language to pinpoint and
develop their ideas, to extend their ways of seeing, to ‘broaden their sense of self’” ie
community
p.152 – 153 ‘Border territory’ is important conversation and interaction – its life
p.154 language and meaning. Students questions and talk informally (online) about formal
reading in class – they are writing and thinking about writing all at once!
155 emails build relationships of reluctant students
p.158 email reflection/conversations were an extension and “added a dimension of
discussions between us all in the literature classroom”
paradox: something absurd or contradictory
p161 “it is the potential to enhance collaborative learning through interactive online
discussion that I ( Gill) found most surprising about online work.
p.164 as in literature about pdagogy these students of Gill’s were relating new material to
their existing knowledge.
“response to student writing far more able to be framed in terms of conversation rather
than correction”
“I am building my relationships through a ‘Voice’ that I develop online, in a way that retains
my centrality to the classroom, but perhaps diffuses my power.”
p.165 The “the ’conversation about the writing, validates the writing itself’
Anstey, M. & Bull, G., (2004), Defining Language and literacy in “Literacy labyrinth”, Pearson,
Prentice Hall, p.5-9.
Doecke, B., & Parr, G. (Eds.). (2005). Writing=Learning. AATE & Wakefield Press
Emmitt, M., Zbaracki, M., Komesaroff, L., & Pollock, J.. (2010). Language and learning: An
introduction to teaching. (5th) Oxford University Press
Illesca, B. (2003), Speaking as other, in B. Doecke, D., Homer & H. Nixon, eds. English
teachers at work: Narratives, counter narratives And arguments (pp. 7 – 13), Kent
Town, Wakefield
Module 2
Sat 16th March
BIG QUESTION
• What do you understand is your professional identity as an English/literacy teacher?
Investigate the following website -http://www.stella.org.au/
STELLA (Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia
- you will find interesting narratives of accomplished practices by Australian teachers
http://www.stella.org.au/index.php?id=41 – NEGOTIATION and FLEXIBILITY on the journey
to the same OUTCOMES
READING – Griffin ‘I am a teacher – Oimigod!’
•
•
In the resource folder read - I am a teacher – oimigod (it is the second reading)
In your journal – consider - How do you feel about teaching after this reading?
Not so enthusiastic about the workload
• What have you learnt about the work of teachers?
Catering for differentiation and needs
• What surprised you?
The truthfulness and his commitment has surprised me
REFLECT
•
•
What do you think are the qualities of a productive classroom?
Read the framework from Jonathon Neeland (2001) “Qualities of a
productive classroom” ..
• Of these qualities what do you think is most important?
All of the qualities Neeland has frame-worked make up an idealistic classroom.
• Why?
• They make up the ‘holistic balanced’ classroom community. The balance sits where
the ‘and’ sits in between the quality complementation’s. That’s where the precarious
‘tight –rope’ of balanced teaching and learning is; tip one way or the other too far and
you might fall off!How might these qualities underpin your teaching?
Neeland’s chart would be useful to keep in mind when planning, when
contemplating creativity and flexibility and developing the overarching class
values and expectations.
As Gill believes in traversing the ‘Border territory’ (p.152 – 153)
as being able to flourish important conversation and interaction about its life and
can spur honest reflective narrative, “part of my role is to students develop
confidence in using language to pinpoint and develop their ideas, to extend their
ways of seeing, to ‘broaden their sense of self’” ie community (p.152)
ACTIVITY
In your practicum you will be planning learning experiences for your students. In
beginning teaching it is important to ‘plan’ and prepare for what you want your
students to learn.
A lesson plan is often used as a tool to help you think through the many aspects
of your plan.
•
Read “Advice re Lesson Planning”
This has been prepared by English colleagues and outlines their advice
in terms of the aspects for you to think about in preparing your
lessons...
READ and REFLECT
•
•
In the resource folder you will find 6 different sample lesson plans (each prepared
by previous Monash English students)
Make notes of the interesting planning ideas and characteristics of each lesson plan
RESPOND
Thinking about the lesson plans....
• What’s in the plan that you expected to see?
• Is there anything particular in the plan (or an aspect of the plan) that surprises you?
• What was the teacher considering as s/he created the plan?
• How is the plan set out? (structure / layout / detail/…)
• What sorts of things are planned for the students to do?
• What sorts of things are planned for the teacher to do? (before the lesson / during
the lesson / after the lesson)
• What is planned? What is not planned? i.e., What sorts of things are left to decide
during the lesson?
READINGS
•
From Writing=Learning: Doecke & McLenaghan, ‘Engaging in valued activities:
Popular culture in the English classroom’ (Ch. 15 of prescribed text)
p.247 popular culture – in what world do students live?
p.248 students need to be culturally literate,
p.249 with the ‘immediate’ and ‘local’ builds on existing worlds to “open up new dimensions
of language and meaning”
p.249 – 250 converstion between Douglas and Illesca re English pedagogy and professional
learning and ‘popular’ or ‘high’ culture. Students in year 11 write a song for psycho
p.252 example film review
p.254 negotiated curriculum
p.255 (VCAA 2000, p.82) criteria: “reflects values and issues in ways that are interesting and
thought provoking for a specified audience”
p.256 text response as an artefact
p.259 ‘Vygotsky’ – and his alternative constructed models of teaching and learning
•
From Language and learning (Emmitt et al., 2010): ‘Doing things with language’ (Ch.
2 of prescribed text)
p.24 language more than communication.” Use of language when we speak, sign or write
involves action that can be seen”
p.25 “meaning and shared meaning lie at the heart of what we do with language”
p.25 “when we use language we use it for a range of purposes, many at one time”
p.26 “ language can help develop emotionally and relationally healthy learning
environments”
p.26 “Our culture compels us to recognise distinctions between people… by giving us a
language that identifies.. those distinctions”
P.27 “ language changes over time to reflect changes in society”
p.28 social implications of language ie of ESL and cultural exclusion
p.29 gossip keeps us in touch with the values of our community; opinions can be formed by
gossip; gossip is the negotiation of shared social values.
p.30 stories as group culture.
p.30 Changes in literary taste reflections of values of the culture from which they grow;
language as information and mis-information
p.31 in a language community there is a common set of meanings for the word we use
p.32 listener has an important cooperative role to play in sharing information
p.32 – 34 .. any one text or language event can serve a number of purposes (Learning
Language Functions)
p.35 – 38 Language for structuring reality. “through language we learn to make meaning in
order to make sense of our experiences”
“ each knowledge discipline structure reality differently”
Differing realities “ Even if we come from similar backgrounds our worlds may be different,
but if we possess different languages and cultures our world may be very different” “ we
need to set tasks that make sense to the child and that work on extending and developing
the child’s logic”
p.37 “ the different use and meaning of language depends on what is central and what is
peripheral in your community” language can be seen as “ hierarchical”
p.38 – 45 language and communication
“shared meanings” “transaction of meaning” and “construction of meaning”
p.39 “language and communication are central to the process of teaching”
p.40 Semiotics : signs that ”convey meaning”
p.41 Levels of communication
Personal
Familial
Social
Regional
National
Global
P.43 “global factors are having an increasing impact on the nature and use of language”
“ for effective communication, negotiation of meaning is critical”
p.44 Improving communication
“teachers’ need to respect the views and values of others”
‘success is more likely if the interests of the students and those of the school .. are shared”
p.45 SUMMARY
“Language is about meaning, and these meanings are expressed through signs and symbols
that are agreed upon by a group”
“Language enables us to maintain group membership within larger cultural groups”
Language provides us with an important means for adopting and assigning roles when we
interact with others”
P.46 Implications for teachers”
 Effective communication
 Understanding culture
 Understand viewpoints
 Language for purpose
 Involve students in language activities
 Language for learning
 Shared meaning: diverse activities
•
Challenge 1
Now its your turn.....while you might not have your own class yet ...here is a
challenge...
– plan a lesson that will enable students to create or engage with ‘multimodal’
texts...texts that might be a blend of oral, print, visual, graphic etc....
I invite you to post your lesson plan in the virtual staffroom and share your ideas
with your colleagues....
Challenge 2
• In your resource folder you will see the outcome of what a group of Year 8
students produced – see Clayton as a claymation.
• Think about what the teacher might have done with the students to enable
them to produce such a text.
Story board, project planning, assign roles, scripts
•
You might like to also think about how you could build from this text to
extend the learning for the students.
Write Reviews
Anstey, M., & Bull, G. (2004). Defining language and literacy. Literacy labyrinth (pp. 5 - 9).
Prentice Hall: Pearson.
Only put ‘In’ in front of editors of the book - if there are no editors – don’t use ‘In’ before a
book title
Churchill, R., Ferguson, P., Godinho, S., Johnson, N., Keddie, A., Letts, W., . . . Vick, M. (2013).
Teaching: Making a difference (2 ed.). Milton, Qld.: John Wiley & Sons.
Emmitt, M. (????). Learning literacy. Language and learning: An introduction to teaching (pp.
204 - 251). South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.
NB don’t need the edition of the book if you are referencing a chapter
Emmitt, M., Zbaracki, M., Komesaroff, L., & John, P. (2012). Language and learning: An
introduction to teaching (5th ed.). South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.
Griffin, A. (2003). I am a teacher - oimigod! The construction of professional knowledge for
the beginning teacher. In B. Doecke, D. Homer & H. Nixon (Eds.), English teachers at
work: Narratives, counter narratives and arguments (pp. 312 - 325). Kent Town, SA:
Wakefield.
Illesca, B. (2003). Speaking as 'other'. In B. Doecke, D. Homer & H. Nixon (Eds.), English
teachers at work : Narratives, counter narratives and arguments (pp. 7 - 13). Kent
Town S.A.: Wakefield.
Neeland, J. (2001). Qualities of a productive classroom. In S. a. f. f. t. about & p. f. l. learning
(Eds.).
Neeland, J. (2001). Qualities of a productive classroom. In S. a. f. f. t. a. p. f. l. learning (Ed.).
Writing = learning. (2005). (B. Doecke & G. Parr Eds.). Kent Town, SA: Wakefield.
Bulfin, S. (2005). Conversation + collaboration + writing = professional learning. In B. Doecke & G. Parr (Eds.),
Writing = learning. Kent Town, SA: Wakefield.
Gill, P. (2005). Talking to write; on line conversations in the literature classroom. In B. Doecke & G. Parr (Eds.),
Writing = learning (pp. 149 - 165). Kent Town, SA: Wakefield.
Parr, G., & Bellis, N. (2005). Autobiographical inquiry in pre-service and early- career teacher learning: The dialogic
possibilities. In B. Doecke & G. Parr (Eds.), Writing = learning (pp. 19 - 39). Kent Town, SA: Wakefield.
Excerpts from the study of Victorian Literary Culture and Australian Literature and History in 2012.
Forum Response: ENG320 Victorian Literary Culture. 16th March 2012:
Is Great Expectations a ‘realistic’ novel?
Great Expectations is a realist novel if the real and the everyday of Dickens life are seen to underpin
the story. Even in the narration of Newgate prison, Charles Dickens is setting a scene for his
audience, bringing criminal life, death and misery starkly to the reader’s attention.
The Norton Anthology describes Dickens as constantly coming back to subjects that captured his
imagination and one of these that permeate his novels (Great Expectations, Olive Twist and others)
is the entity of the prison, prisoners and prison life. It is clear from the piece Dickens titled A Visit to
NewGate Prison that he fashioned a great deal of his writing of criminality and imprisonment on the
‘real’ Newgate Prison, where Dickens has done most of his ‘research’:
“If Bedlam could be suddenly removed like another Aladdin’s palace, and set down on the
space now occupied by Newgate, scarcely one man out of a hundred, whose road to business
every morning lies through Newgate street, or the Old Bailey, would pass the building
without bestowing a hasty glance on its small, grated windows, and a transient thought
upon the condition of the unhappy beings immured in its dismal cells; and yet these same
men, day by day, and hour by hour, pass and repass this gloomy depository of the guilt and
misery of London, in one perpetual stream of life and bustle, utterly unmindful of the throng
of wretched creatures pent up within it - nay, not even knowing, or if they do, not heeding,
the fact, that as they pass one particular angle of the massive wall with a light laugh or a
merry whistle, they stand within one yard of a fellow-creature, bound and helpless, whose
hours are numbered, from whom the last feeble ray of hope has fled for ever, and whose
miserable career will shortly terminate in a violent and shameful death.”
Ms Haversham (according to Harry Stone’s essay in the GE Norton Edn.) is based on a grotesque lady
that a young Dickens observed wandering the streets of London. In his publication Household Words
Dickens caricatures this lady as The White Woman:
She is dressed entirely in white, with a ghastly white plaiting round her head and face……She
is a conceited old creature, cold and formal in manner, and evidently went simpering mad on
personal grounds alone – no doubt because a wealthy Quaker wouldn’t marry her. This is her
bridal dress, She is always walking up here, on her way to church to marry the false Quaker.
The ‘real’ is embedded in places and caricatures, so with these places and caricatures Dickens has
created a theatre that draws attention to the issues of the real, the ordinary and the everyday
speaking to us very vividly through exaggeration. Dickens’s world spoke to him, it beckoned him, it
was his real world on which he based his fiction, so if this is realism then Great Expectations is a
realistic novel, if not it’s a work of fiction only; though isn’t most fiction based on a real world
understanding to some degree? It’s the real that feeds the fiction and the fiction brings the story to
life.
Forum Response: ENG320 Victorian Literary Culture. 26th April 2012:
How does Middlemarch treat notions of ordinariness?
How are such ideas linked to the novel's political commentaries on the structures of Victorian
culture?
In the context of femininity, Middlemarch does treat ordinariness as extra ordinary or exceptional in
some circumstances. Mary Garth for instance is exceptional in her wisdom, diligence and
industriousness of her seemingly ordinary life. Dorothea exists in provincial life with a view to doing
extra ordinary things and in a sense does these by marrying a scholar with a view of learning a great
deal from him; ironically all she learns is drudgery.
The political structures and politics of class, especially for the landed gentry and their farmland were
changing for the Victorians. George Eliot portrays at length the ordinary provincial setting of
Middlemarch, that is, the social class structure and norms of behaviour of the English provinces. On
top of this setting she lays a plot that is challenging this insular ‘provinciality’ in the conversations
and gatherings of the landowners, clergy and merchants who would all be affected by changes
coming in the late nineteenth century such as The Reform Bill, the ‘Catholic Question’ ,research into
medicine and the onset of the Industrialisation.
Essay: LCS31 Australian Literature and History A. 26MAY2012:
Compare the ways ‘Mateship’ figures in the works of Henry Lawson, Barbara Baynton and Miles
Franklin.
In the preface to Franklin’s My Brilliant Career, Henry Lawson considers Miles Franklin’s
writing as quintessentially “true to Australia” (Franklin 281), even though he finds it difficult to relate
to the female perspective. There is no doubt the sentimentalizing of mateship came “From Lawson
onwards its champions have at times, to use an apt phrase of Twain’s ‘suffered from the
panegyrics’” (Moore 45). The widely accepted masculine ideology of loyal mateship became one of
the criteria of being Australian as the milestone of Federation crept closer at the end of the
nineteenth century. Just as Lawson already had mediums in which to present his views, including the
dogmatic Bulletin, both Franklin and Baynton were to herald the rising feminist voice in the art of
literature, illuminating the Australian woman and their take on ‘mateship’; proffering new waves of
thought against the accepted eulogies of what Manning Clark disparagingly described as Lawson’s
“Mateyness.” (Clark 41).
Essay: LCS31 Australian Literature and History A. Critical Appreciation of Australian Poetry
In 1888, when The Black fellow’s Lament (Lee was written, Chinese immigrant ships were prevented
from landing at Sydney harbour (Reading 1. Readings, 2012). The Bulletin had the persona of the
Aboriginal touted as ‘the cheap Nigger’ (Reading 9. Readings, 2012) and excluded these races from
any political or social identity or political involvement. Writings in the Bulletin also reflected the
‘white working-man’ and the developing ideology of the ‘white Australia’ at the expense of the
Indigenous population:
It (The Bulletin) contributed more than a little to the first federal parliament’s White
Australia Policy…Though two histories, white and Aboriginal, were linked in their dependence
on the land, their experience was in conflict. (Reading 2. Readings, 2012 p106).
My Forum Entry: ENG320 Victorian Literary Culture. 27th May 2012.
To Geoff and fellow ENG320 classmates,
Thank you for an inspiring and engaging unit in Victorian Literary Culture.
I have found this unit hugely challenging and rewarding in being able to engage with authors of
classic literature, including those I had not studied in the past that and also gaining an appreciation
of classical poetry. Middlemarch must be the stand out novel for me, not having studied George Eliot
previously. A teacher once described the study of history as being wasted on the young, but I find it
a shame that I had not previously been able to appreciate George Eliot for her authorship and
pioneering brilliance in combining social commentary with such a complex romance plot. The more I
persisted with this novel the more I realised its importance for its literary and historical significance.
My next step is to apply for a qualification in post graduate secondary teaching and I know I leave
this unit enthused about the richness of literary culture and history that I can use for the basis of
teaching English.