The state of english in the english state: Reflections on the cox report

Abstract

This article discusses English teaching in relation to the rhetoric which surrounds the establishment in England and Wales of a National Curriculum. English teaching and questions of Standard English currently have a very high profile in Britain: the English language is a rallying point for both Left and Right wing in the current educational and political debates (Bourne, 1988). My discussions concerns the Cox Report: the Report of the National Curriculum English Working Group (DES, 1989). The article discusses the Report in its political context, with reference to the very different ways of talking about English teaching which are evident in the Report itself and in the mass media. Much of the public debate is over cultural symbols and shibboleths, in an area where deeply emotional arguments often replace rational discussion. The article is therefore both a case study of part of the wide ranging curriculum changes taking place in Britain, and also of the way the mass media treat such topics, and of public understanding of questions of language and English.

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