‘The fun we had and the way we went about it’: Is now the time to learn lessons from L.A.T.E.’s past?

Abstract

In the United Kingdom there appears to be a move to reduce the influence of 'top down' or centrally driven teaching and learning reforms in favour of returning control to schools and teachers to make necessary improvements at a local level. In this context, ideas about 'professional learning communities' or 'communities of practice' are potentially fruitful. This article, drawing on the author's own research, suggests that if we are to take subject English into a life beyond the National Strategies, it would be worth our remembering how one English 'community of practice' -the London Association for the Teaching of English -helped to shape one model of the discipline.