| The purpose of this study is to examine definitions of secondary English teaching through history and to account for the social relations that made them possible. Through genealogy, I highlight some of the various power/knowledge relations that have coalesced in English since the late 19th century and draw attention to some aspects of its emergence and transformations that may not be treated in other accounts. My analysis demonstrates how ways of defining English teaching came to be governed not only through knowledges of literary disciplines, but also through the human sciences, pastoral pedagogies, and relations of governmentality. I highlight the emergence and transformations of these relations through my own analysis of definitions of English teaching in contemporary interviews and archival texts, and I supplement this analysis with other historical inquiries that have examined power-knowledge relations in other spheres of education and social welfare. This genealogy attempts to denaturalize common ways of reasoning about English teaching and to draw attention to power-knowledge relations that have been reproduced, adapted, and transformed through history. By making these (dis)continuous relations visible, I hope they can be taken into account in ongoing efforts to debate, invent, and critique possible approaches to English education in secondary schools, educational research, and teacher education. |
