What is the relation of Literature to ‘the public’? This symposium session aims to present research on literary curriculum and literary knowledge in terms of the ECER conference theme of inclusion and exclusion through considering the notion of reading publics – how these are created through schooling, literary curricula and the pedagogies of literature.The symposium will present 4 papers on research around literary curriculum and pedagogy from 3nations – Australia, Denmark and England. Each will have a focus on the creation of reading publics in these contexts through taking up analytical stances in relation particularly to literary curricula in these nations – such as through the mapping of contemporary practice and historical curricula and investigating how institutional practices define and create literary knowledges and reading publics. At a political level, the focus on mother-tongue education such as English and Danish has always been much more as part of the so-called basics of literacy and in contemporary terms is increasingly framed by questions such as the ‘21^st century skills or capabilities’ young people need. Literary knowledge often comes in as debates about what should be taught (classics, popular texts and media etc) rather than as an explicit argument about what the purpose is of this teaching, and often is tacitly about the citizenship or values agenda. This symposium takes up this important question by examining what literary curricula, literary educational praxis and literary knowledge in different nations frame as reading publics, and hence address what the place of a literary education is in supporting a democracy.

Christensen, T. S., Elf, N. F., & Krogh, E. (2014). Skrivekulturer i folkeskolens niende klasse [Writing Cultures in secondary education's grade 9]. Gibbons, S. [2017] English and its Teachers: a history of policy, pedagogy and practice, London, Routledge Gissel, S.T., & Skovmand, K. (2016). Kategorisering af digitale læremidler. En undersøgelse af det digitale læremiddellandskab [Categorization of digital learning resources: A study of the digital landscape of learning resources]. Læremiddel.dk: AUUC Konsortiet. Retrieved from https://demoskolesky.au.dk/index.php/s/MSDespn94Eq1hvj (10 Dec 2016). Goodwyn, A., Durrant. C., Reid, L and Scerff, E. [Eds] [2017] International perspectives on the teaching of Literature in schools; global principles and practices, London, Routledge Kirkpatrick, P., and Dixon, R. (2012). Republics of Letters: Literary Communities in Australia. Sydney: Sydney UP, 2012. Kirkpatrick, P., and Dixon, R. (2012). Republics of Letters: Literary Communities in Australia. Sydney: Sydney UP, 2012. McLean Davies, L. (2008) ‘Telling stories: Australian literature in a national English curriculum’, English in Australia, 43, 45-51 Peel, R. (2000) ‘Beliefs about English in England’, in R. Peel, A. Patterson & J. Gerlach, Questions of English: Ethics, Aesthetics, Rhetoric and the Formation of the Subject in England, Australia and the United States, London & New York: Routledge Falmer. Williams, R. (1958) ‘Culture is ordinary’, in N.McKenzie (ed) Conviction, London: McGibbon & Kee.