Reshaping English teacher practices: Insights from Queensland state syllabus reform

In 2019, a new English Senior Secondary syllabus (QCAA, 2019) was implemented in all schools across Queensland, Australia. This syllabus, incorporating high-stakes external examinations and supporting documents, instigated a shift in the teaching and assessing of senior secondary English that has been both challenging and revitalising for teachers. We present findings from an instrumental case study designed to explore how a new, more highly defined syllabus has been shifting and reshaping Queensland English teachers’ practices. These teachers noted significant and strategic shifts in their practice concerning teaching creative writing, giving feedback, sharing understandings of grading descriptors with external markers, the quantification of marking, and large-scale external assessment processes. We argue that emergent practices that result from wholesale curricular reform need to be carefully observed and reflected on by all stakeholders as teachers move beyond initial transition stages, to ensure that practice is always evolving in professionally responsive ways.