Senior secondary English in New South Wales: Linguistic and epistemic perspectives
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis examines senior secondary English in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, assessing almost 80,000 students per annum via externally-set examinations, and, at the time of writing, transitioning from an old to new senior English syllabus. Previous research (e.g., Christie 1999, 2016; Christie & Derewianka, 2008; Christie & Macken-Horarik, 2011; Macken-Horarik, 2006; Rosser, 2000) has investigated subject English at various stages of its history by examining the development of curriculum documents, classroom discourse, and assessment practices; however, these three elements have not been considered concurrently. This thesis builds on this prior research by comparing the most recent NSW syllabi, from 2009 and 2018, and examining how syllabus requirements are realised through assessment practices and classroom discourse to provide a mutually informing account of subject English in theory and practice. Drawing on three data sources – the Rationale of the Stage 6 English syllabus, five student examination responses, and classroom and interview data – the linguistic and epistemic requirements of subject English are explored, using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) as theoretical frameworks. Analysis revealed that subject English values both knowledge (of language and literature) and knowers (as sensitive and appreciative readers), and that students are required to demonstrate both knowledge and dispositions through carefully controlled writing in the essay form. These findings were generally congruent with earlier research into the nature of the discipline (e.g., Davison, 2005), emphasising the importance of the duality of both knowledge and knower structures, rather than one or the other. Analysis of classroom data suggested that students appear to be cognisant of these requirements but were often resistant to dominant readings of texts, and struggled to demonstrate their knowledge in the required ways. Classr…
abstract: This thesis examines senior secondary English in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, assessing almost 80,000 students per annum via externally-set examinations, and, at the time of writing, transitioning from an old to new senior English syllabus. Previous research (e.g., Christie 1999, 2016; Christie & Derewianka, 2008; Christie & Macken-Horarik, 2011; Macken-Horarik, 2006; Rosser, 2000) has investigated subject English at various stages of its history by examining the development of curriculum documents, classroom discourse, and assessment practices; however, these three elements have not been considered concurrently. This thesis builds on this prior research by comparing the most recent NSW syllabi, from 2009 and 2018, and examining how syllabus requirements are realised through assessment practices and classroom discourse to provide a mutually informing account of subject English in theory and practice. Drawing on three data sources – the Rationale of the Stage 6 English syllabus, five student examination responses, and classroom and interview data – the linguistic and epistemic requirements of subject English are explored, using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) as theoretical frameworks. Analysis revealed that subject English values both knowledge (of language and literature) and knowers (as sensitive and appreciative readers), and that students are required to demonstrate both knowledge and dispositions through carefully controlled writing in the essay form. These findings were generally congruent with earlier research into the nature of the discipline (e.g., Davison, 2005), emphasising the importance of the duality of both knowledge and knower structures, rather than one or the other. Analysis of classroom data suggested that students appear to be cognisant of these requirements but were often resistant to dominant readings of texts, and struggled to demonstrate their knowledge in the required ways. Classr…
author: Anson, Daniel
language: EN
keywords: Subject english, Systemic functional linguistics, legitimation code theory, Curriculum, Assessment
license: https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/
date published: 2019
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:32:14Z
provider: University of New South Wales
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: UNSW, Sydney

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/63380

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.26190/unsworks/21418