Professor Helen Fulton on the new A-level English curriculum

Posted on 1 March 2013

Professor Helen Fulton, Head of the Department of English and Related Literature, gave a short talk at the Westminster Education Forum in London on 26 February

Helen Fulton

The following reflects Professor Fulton’s talk and her thinking on the implications of changes in the Key Stage 4 curriculum:

“Following publication of the government’s proposed new curriculum for English, I’ve been thinking about what it means for those of us who teach in university English departments.

At the University of York, which has one of the top departments for English in the country, with eight applicants for every place, we are completely reliant on the English A-level to prepare our students for university work. We take a keen interest in the A-level curriculum because we need to be confident that the award of an A in A-level English signifies a student who is likely to enjoy a positive learning experience in our department.

By and large, the current A-level system does the job. Over 90% of our first-year students come to us with three As at A-level, and they are pretty special students. They prepare for classes, they read beyond the reading list, they write with fluency and elegance, they want to learn. However high you set the bar, they find the talent and the will to jump over it.

So what assumed knowledge and skills do we rely on in our first-year students? What is it that we take for granted they will bring with them from their A-levels? Firstly, a love of reading, and the experience of reading widely. Secondly, the ability to analyse texts critically and to write an interpretive essay that makes an argument. Thirdly, a broad knowledge of different periods of literature and the cultural and political contexts in which texts are produced. To some extent, the actual texts studied at A-level aren’t the key issue (though one would hope for some chronological coverage); it’s what students are able do with them that counts.

The proposed new curriculum for English Key Stage 4 focuses on skills - especially grammar - but says little about the knowledge of cultural and literary history that enables students to place a variety of texts in meaningful contexts. The syllabus picks a few generic types at random – including the Romantic poets, a nineteenth-century novel, and First World War poetry - but does not give a rationale for these very safe choices. I am concerned that this unadventurous syllabus, along with the downgrading of AS-levels, the sidelining of subjects that complement English, and the focus on exams, will fail to prepare students adequately for university-level English.

To produce school-leavers and graduates with the skills and knowledge to be employable in the modern world we need to promote a broader understanding of literature in an international context.

At York, we lift students of English out of their comfort zones and challenge them with the marginal, the difficult, the pre-modern, the multicultural, while giving due weight to both the legacy and the politics of the canon.

If the new Key Stage 4 curriculum goes ahead, this may impact on our ability to inspire our students to go beyond the mainstream and to appreciate fully the joy of discovering new worlds through a deeper exploration of literature.”