English in Australia: Complying or disappearing?

ABSTRACT: Australia may be about to enter an era of compliance in educational provision to match the current regime in England. English is subject here to the same pressures on testing, outcomes and literacy concerns as in England. It is possible, but is appearing increasingly unlikely, that our federal system may prevent the kind of all encompassing accountability and Big Brother-ness that is educational life in England. Similarly the Institutes of Teachers growing up in Australia may be a force for good for the profession or may become just another form of managerialism with which governments can beat teachers and withdraw from their own responsibilities in education. The biggest threat to the subject in Australia at present may, in fact, be the trend towards inter-disciplinary curricula that ignore the potential and depth of critique and creativity provided by subject English