Cirrus@Austlit

The year 2012 is significant for English teachers in Australia, not only is it the National Year of Reading, but it is also the year when an increasing number of English teachers across the country are implementing the Australian Curriculum: English, the first national curriculum in the history of the nation. This paper addresses the ways in which Australian literature is privileged in both the National Year of Reading and in the Australian English curriculum documents, and considers what can be learnt about the challenges and rewards of teaching Australian literature through placing these two events, and their associated texts, in dialogue. This results in the recommendation that English teachers consider auditing the texts they set for study, and text selection practices more broadly, as part of their professional learning activities. In light of this, the second half of this paper is concerned with providing a rationale for a textual audit, and pragmatic suggestions for the way such an undertaking might be implemented (Author abstract).