English K-6 syllabus and support document (1994) : imperilled by politics and paradigm shifts

English K-6 syllabus and support document (1994) is NSW's 'Clayton's' Primary English syllabus in that it was released in 1994, was 'on hold' and under review in early 1995 then recommended for revision by 1998. This is an extraordinary example of 'the written curriculum' of subject English, a site of intense ideological and pedagogical contestation. The Report produced by the Eltis Committee of Review, Focus on learning : Report of the Review of Outcomes and Profiles in New South Wales Schooling (1995) recommended immediate revision of 2 aspects of the syllabus in particular : firstly, the removal from English K-6 Syllabus of outcome statements from the National Profiles and secondly, the removal of the model of grammar endorsed in the document, 'Functional Grammar'. The history of the paradigm shift from State outcomes in syllabus documents, to the inclusion of National Profiles outcomes statements, forms the first part of this study. The recommendation of the Eltis Report to remove 'Functional Grammar' from the syllabus was politically motivated and had pedagogical implications for all those teachers, professional English educators and scholars who have been in divisive debate for nearly a decade about the broadest aspect of the frame of 'Functional Grammar', namely genre, or 'text type' as it is termed in English K-6 Syllabus. This study also looks at the history of the genre theory debate about teaching students to write and the paradigm shift that led to the inclusion of genre theory in the 1994 syllabus. This study, then, examines the essentially political nature of the school subject, English, in a regional educational context of the State of NSW. By presenting a brief curriculum history of the English K-6 Syllabus and Support Document (1994) it will be seen that a curriculum document can be a focus for power struggles between State and Commonwealth Governments and a site of contestation within the educational communities who are stakeholders in subject Englis