The London Association for the Teaching of English 1947-1967 : a history

The nature of English as a subject in the school curriculum has long been a site for fierce debate. Given the potential contribution English has to make to the development of the child and ultimately to society, individuals, interest groups and policy makers have for many decades contested what philosophy ought to underpin the subject, and what should be taught and learned within its domain. Particularly in the years following the Second World War, against the backdrop of changes to schooling and society more generally, distinctive models ofthe subject can be seen to have developed. Critical to the emergence of a model of English teaching often called London English, English as language or personal growth - a model that still has much currency in England and further a field to this day - were a group of teachers and academics working together within the voluntary subject association, the London Association for the Teaching of English (LATE). Through an analysis of hitherto unexplored archive document material, supported by data from interviews with some of those involved in LATE's first decades, this thesis aims to recount the history of the Association's first twenty years in existence, to evaluate critically the contributions it made to development of a new model of English, and to explore the potential contemporary significance, both of LATE's work and its ways ofworking