ABSTRACT

This paper explores GCSE English re-sits in post-16 education. The re-sit policy was introduced in England and Wales to improve national literacy rates, yet persistently poor pass rates have drawn robust criticism of the policy. This article argues that traditional discourses of literacy predominate and contribute towards antagonisms between re-sit students and subject English. The high-stakes nature of the qualification and associated performativity pressures compound the difficulties. High levels of test-teaching and technique-spotting impair the ambit of the GCSE re-sit programme to deliver the type of literacy which the policy purports to improve. This autoethnographic study correlates the GCSE re-sit landscape with Paulo Freire’s ‘banking model’ of education and uses the work of The New Literacies Studies to suggest that dominant “autonomous” discourses of literacy are impeding educators’ appreciation of literacies as situated practices.

摘要

本文探讨了 16 岁后教育中的 GCSE 英语重考。英格兰和威尔士引入了重考政策以提高国家识字率，但持续低下的及格率引起了对该政策的强烈批评。本文认为，传统的识字话语占主导地位，并助长了重考学生与学科英语之间的对抗。资格的高风险性质和相关的执行压力加剧了困难。高水平的考试教学和技术发现损害了 GCSE 重考计划的范围，以提供政策旨在提高的识字类型。