I am a member of the Initial Teacher Education team (Secondary). My responsibility is for the GTP and PGCE English programmes for secondary school teachers, on which I teach full time.

I was educated at the universities of Oxford and London. I taught for some 22 years in various multicultural, inner-city comprehensive schools in London before joining the English team at the Institute of Education, University of London. I worked there for five years, teaching on the PGCE and Master of Teaching courses. I have been here at UEL since 2002.

GTP and PGCE English programmes for secondary school teachers

• New teachers’ professional development
• Working with linguistic and cultural diversity in English
• How young people might become autonomous, lifelong learners

• PGCE Secondary English
• GTP Secondary English

Book chapter

1. Quarshie R (1999) ‘Some thoughts on a portrait of Stoke Newington School’
   Translated as ‘Einige Gedanken zum Porträt der Stoke Newington School und zum Schulwesen in Grossbritannien’ in Kunze I (Ed) (1999) Schulporträts aus didaktischer Perspektive - Schulen in England, in den Niederlanden und in Dänemark
   Weinheim and Basel: Beltz Verlag
   ISBN 3-407-25223-4

Journal article

1. Burgess T Turvey A Quarshie R (2000) ‘Teaching Grammar: working with student teachers’
   Changing English 7 (1)

1. Member of NATE
2. Ex-chair NATE Multicultural Committee

Einige Gedanken zum Portrait der Stoke Newington School

Some thoughts on a portrait of Stoke Newington School

Abstract

The chapter attempts to provide a context for a ‘portrait’, by a German researcher, of a school in which I was teaching in 1996. The ‘portrait’ was one of five case studies of schools in the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark.

I highlight four key aspects of my experience as a practising teacher looking back over a period of rapid educational change since the introduction of the National Curriculum.

First, I stress the pace of legislation and contrast the first 17 years after the 1944 Education Act, which saw only four short Acts, slightly modifying the original, with the 17 years after the Conservatives were first elected to power in 1979, when there were 18 new Education Acts.

Second, I comment on the Conservative Government’s denial of the link between poverty/privilege and educational attainment.

Third, I argue that the National Curriculum’s excessive prescription of the details of subject matter has meant less time is available for general pastoral issues.

Finally, I suggest that increasing government dictation of what and how teachers teach has led to a loss of autonomy, as exemplified by the continuing pressure to abandon mixed ability teaching.