School earns stripes with Bard project

Academics from the University of Sydney and English teachers at Barker College are putting their heads together to improve the way Shakespeare is taught.

The project is being launched as more than 67,000 NSW students receive their HSC results by SMS or telephone on Wednesday. Students who topped individual subjects will also be honoured at a ceremony at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney.

The teaching of literature, particularly Shakespeare, was a target of the Howard government's so-called culture wars campaign.

English teachers argued the former government's attack on standards, and suggestions that some were only teaching Shakespeare through the prism of Marxist and feminist critical theories, was used to distract political attention away from a lack of government resources for public schools.

The headmaster of Barker College, Rod Kefford, said most English teachers approached Shakespeare as a whole text, as drama and as literature, and not from a single point of view.

Dr Kefford said the project was the first partnership between the school and the University of Sydney, and would receive funding from the Australian Research Council.

"We are looking at refining the way we are teaching Shakespeare so that we really make it an exciting experience for the kids," he said.

"We are already doing it pretty well and that is why Sydney Uni has chosen to partner with us."

Dr Kefford said university lecturers would benefit from learning how the school approaches the teaching of Shakespeare.

Liam Semler, from the University of Sydney, said the main aim of the project was to share information and to enhance the teaching of Shakespeare in universities and schools. "We have recognised that school teachers and academics are professionals in our own domains and that we can learn from one another,"

Dr Semler said.

"There is something of a wall between universities and schools that we wanted to try and dissolve so there can be a much freer flow of ideas, back and forth."

Dr Semler said school students sometimes arrived at university demonstrating poor grammar and essay writing skills and a narrow understanding of literature.

But he described this year's crop of top students as superb.

The collaboration with Barker will also result in a website that will recommend authoritative Shakespeare texts to assist teenagers with literary research skills and essay writing.

Dr Semler will work in residence at Barker College on a monthly basis and help develop a postgraduate course for the school's teachers next year.