Unsettling subject English in the twenty-first century

This paper uses examples from Australia and England to explore subject English with regard to the multiple metaphors inherent in the terms ‘settling’ and ‘unsettling’. In doing so we are concerned with imagining a future for a subject English curriculum which dislodges it from its imperial, colonial roots. In the first instance, we outline the existing approaches to unsettling English in England and Australia and the challenges and limitations of these approaches and strategies. We also discuss some of the structures and agents which are invested in maintaining the status quo: namely, curriculum and assessment; teacher practices and disciplinary norms; teacher knowledge and CPD; and student context and the purposes of English. We conclude with the implications for a systemic and multi-layered approach to unsettling. We see this as an opening up of a comparative conversation about subject English across the Anglophone world, the different contexts of unsettling and what that subject might look like if it is to enact the justice imperatives of education in the twenty-first century.