I’m still researching. Like most of you I’m sure. Research hasn’t so much shut down as taken a peculiar turn. I’m part of a team looking at school leaders’ work during the pandemic, the support they’ve received, their wellbeing and career plans. Working with the two largest leader organisations in England and Wales, we have already […] … learn more→

My earliest encounters with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are etched into my torn and tattered copy of the The Riverside Chaucer. I have even more indelible memories of my first seminar: sitting around a large table, forcibly holding down the edges of the hefty paperback, and nervously waiting for my turn to read a line of the General Prologue. Out loud. In […] … learn more→

There is a growing body of literature — novels, memoirs, poetry, graphic novels, picture books — through which Indigenous writers are giving voice and agency to the experiences and histories of Indian residential schooling in Canada. The ethical teaching of residential school narratives can be thought of as a relational process that requires consultation and accountability. Rather than view residential school literature as […] … learn more→

“All the children of our world will know his name,” prophesies Professor McGonagall at the beginning of Harry Potter . More than 20 years after the appearance in bookstore of the hero imagined by JK Rowling, it is clear that fiction has become reality. The series in seven volumes that traces the path of initiation of the young orphan was published more than […] … learn more→

Anyone who goes to a library will see that the children’s section is increasingly populated by large format books, full of illustrations and with little text. We enter a bookstore and from the window we already see the presence of works for children in hard cover and with impressive images. There is no Early Childhood classroom that […] … learn more→

In recent years, we have seen an epic scale of destruction caused by war, terrorism, global warming, famine and the obliteration of human cultural artifacts. These events could be considered apocalyptic — either on a global scale, or as threats to specific communities. When I began studying apocalypses in literature four years ago, my focus was on events like the Holocaust and the […] … learn more→

Hand on hips. That’s the stance to take with literatures work. Hands on hips is a metaphor. Think about times when you have put your hands on your hips, stood back and looked at something. Your gaze is not neutral and neither is your thinking. You are summing up. What does this thing in front […] … learn more→