Meeting the Great Challenge: What Growth-Oriented Writing of the 1960s and 1970s can Teach Us about Uniting the Individualistic and Social Aims of English Education

This study explores the relationship between two values that sit at the heart of English education: a commitment to democratic citizenship and a commitment to fostering students’ personal growth. Some scholars have argued that these values are often at odds and the ‘great challenge’ of the field is to unite the individualistic and social goals of English education. The study explores the commensurability of these aims by considering the way they were united in the growth-oriented practitioner writing composed in the decade after the Anglo-American Seminar on the Teaching of English in 1966. To conduct the study, I examined English Journal articles written between 1968 and 1978 to see if articles that emphasised students’ personal growth also attended to the goal of democratic citizenship. The analysis shows that while it may be rare for advocates of the personal growth model to attend to students’ development as citizens, these goals are not inherently incompatible. I conclude with closing remarks on what this study suggests about how the field might meet the ‘great challenge’ of uniting the individualistic and social aims of English.