The Sydney School is a genre-based writing pedagogy that analyses literacy levels of students.Rose, David. (2018). “Languages of Schooling: embedding literacy learning with genre-based pedagogy.” European Journal of Applied Linguistics. 6(1): 59–89. The Sydney School's pedagogy broadened the traditional observation-based writing in primary schools to encompass a spectrum of different genres of text types that are appropriate to various discourses and include fiction and non-fiction.Rose, David. (2019). “Writing as linguistic mastery: the development of genre-based literacy pedagogy.” In Handbook of Writing Development, edited by D. Myhill, D. Beard, M. Nystrand and J. Riley. (London: Sage): 1-19.Martin, J. R. (2000). "Grammar Meets Genre: Reflections on the 'Sydney School'". Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association. 22: 47-95. The method and practice of teaching established by the Sydney School encourages corrective and supportive feedback in the education of writing practices for students, particularly regarding second language students.Devrim, D. Y. (2014). “Theorizing written feedback as a mediation tool within the Sydney school's genre pedagogy: A focus on ZPD and scaffolding.” Functional Linguistics. 1(1): 1. The Sydney School is intended to reflectively institutionalise a pedagogy that is established to be conducive to students of lower socio-economic backgrounds, indigenous students and migrants lacking strong English literacy.Dufficy, Paul. (Jun 2000). "Through the lens of scaffolding: Genre pedagogy and talk in multilingual classrooms." TESOL in Context. 10(1): 4-9. The functional linguists who designed the genre-based pedagogy of the Sydney School did so from a semantic perspective to teach through patterns of meaning and emphasised the importance of the acquisition of a holistic literacy in various text types or genres.Rose, David. (2018). “Languages of Schooling: embedding literacy learning with genre-based pedagogy.” European Journal of Applied Linguistics. 6(1): 63. 'Sydney School' is not an entirely accurate name, as the pedagogy evolved beyond metropolitan Sydney universities to being adopted nationally and, by 2000, was exported to centres in Hong Kong, Singapore, and parts of Britain.Martin, J. R. (2000). "Grammar Meets Genre: Reflections on the 'Sydney School'". Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association. 22: 47-95.
Background The Sydney School is a genre-based literacy pedagogy that began developing in August 1979 at the Working Conference on Language in Education. This conference, organised by Michael Halliday, is noted by J. R. Martin as being the place at which ideas about genre analysis as a lens to observe the way students are taught to write in primary and secondary school were formed. The significant developments of the Sydney School throughout the 1980s were based upon the assessment of primary schools’ treatment of genre in education, consisting of a removed approach that was focused primarily upon recount and observation-based writing.Rose, David, and J. R Martin. Learning To Write, Reading To Learn. Sheffield: Equinox, 2012. p. 66.Rose, David. (2019). “Writing as linguistic mastery: the development of genre-based literacy pedagogy.” In Handbook of Writing Development, edited by D. Myhill, D. Beard, M. Nystrand and J. Riley. (London: Sage): 1. It was not until 1995 when the NSW Board of Studies designed their new English K-6 syllabus that the theories of the Sydney School began to make an impact on pedagogy.Rose, David. (2019). “Writing as linguistic mastery: the development of genre-based literacy pedagogy.” In Handbook of Writing Development, edited by D. Myhill, D. Beard, M. Nystrand and J. Riley. (London: Sage): 7.Martin, J. R. (2000). "Grammar Meets Genre: Reflections on the 'Sydney School'". Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association. 22: 48. The title 'Sydney School' was given to the body of research however became quickly outdated as the study began to extend nationally. By 2000 the Sydney School had firmly become attained international reach.Martin, J. R. (2000). "Grammar Meets Genre: Reflections on the 'Sydney School'". Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association. 22: 49.
Notable influencers and researchers
Michael Halliday Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday founded the Department of Linguistics at the University of Sydney in 1976. Before establishing the Sydney Linguistics department Emeritus Professor Michael Halliday held chairs at the University of London, the University of Illinois and the University of Essex. Eventually Professor Halliday gained worldwide recognition as founder of the theory of systemic functional linguistics.Halliday, M. A. K. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold, 1985. His inception of systemic functional linguistics was galvanised by his linguistic research in English which led to his theories on cohesion, lexicogrammar and prosodic phonology.Mwinlaaru, Isaac N. and Winfred Wenhui Xuan. (2016). “A survey of studies in systemic functional language description and typology.” Functional Linguistics. 3(8): 21. This theory serves as the basis for the Sydney School. Michael Halliday organised the Working Conference on Language in Education at the University of Sydney which is cited as being where the work that resulted in development of the Sydney School first got underway.Martin, J. R. (2000). "Grammar Meets Genre: Reflections on the 'Sydney School'". Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association. 22: 47.
Basil Bernstein The development Sydney School was influenced by the sociological theory of Basil Bernstein. Bernstein's theoretical discussion of the sociology of education involving social class having distinct effects upon students' success or failure within the education system especially influenced J. R. Martin's early work within the Sydney School.Martin, J. R. (2000). "Grammar Meets Genre: Reflections on the 'Sydney School'". Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association. 22: 75. Bernstein refers to this as being a battle about pedagogy and curriculum between old and new middle class.Bernstein, Basil. Class, Codes and Control 3: towards a theory of educational transmissions. London, 1975. p. 17. Bernstein identifies these classes as representing traditional and progressive pedagogy respectively.Bernstein, Basil. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity - Theory, Research and Critique. London: Taylor and Francis Ltd, 1996.Bernstein, Basil. Towards a Theory of Educational Transmission. London: Routledge, 2003.
J. R. Martin James Robert Martin is one of the primary contributors to the Sydney School. In 1979 Martin began lecturing in the Faculty of Applied Linguistics in conjunction with the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney. Professor Martin made significant contributions to linguistic theory and practice, which includes discourse semantics, genre, and appraisal. Martin was in attendance at the Working Conference on Language in Education which he describes as being the beginning of the Sydney School's development.Martin, J. R. (2000). "Grammar Meets Genre: Reflections on the 'Sydney School'". Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association. 22: 47.
David Rose David Rose is a significant researcher within the Sydney School and emphasises interdisciplinary approaches to language education. Rose is currently the Director of the Reading to Learn Literacy program which has become renowned globally and aims to guide teacher's pedagogical practices in classrooms.Rose, David. (2018). “Languages of Schooling: embedding literacy learning with genre-based pedagogy.” European Journal of Applied Linguistics. 6(1): 59–89.Shum, Mark Shiu-kee, Chung Pui Tai and Dan Shi. (2018). “Using ‘Reading to Learn’ (R2L) pedagogy to teach discussion genre to non-Chinese-speaking students in Hong Kong.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 21(2): 237-247. In Rose's early career as an academic and researcher he studied the Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal language and identified this indigenous language as having more resemblance to Latin than to English, particularly in their suffixes and that descriptive categories.Rose, David. "Pitjantjatjara Processes: An Australian Experiential Grammar." In Functional Descriptions: Theory in Practice, edited by R. Hasan, C. Cloran and D. Butt, p. 287-321. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1996. Rose worked in South African classrooms and through this research into the educational practices he noted the impact of colonialism on South African students.Rose, David. (2005). "Democratising the classroom: a literacy pedagogy for the new generation." Journal of Education. 37: 135. Rose emphasises that in order to build a democratic post-apartheid South Africa improving pedagogical practices and therefore democratising the classroom is pivotal. He proffers that classroom democracy can be enhanced through successful literacy pedagogy that engages students and promotes high levels of literacy.Rose, David. (2005). "Democratising the classroom: a literacy pedagogy for the new generation." Journal of Education. 37: 131-167. This is the goal of the Sydney School's pedagogy, particularly its emphasis on supportive feedback and dialogue between student and teacher.
Genre in the Sydney School The Sydney School characterises genres as staged goal-oriented social processes. J. R. Martin describes that, "As functional linguists we interpreted genres from a semantic perspective as patterns of meaning."Martin, J. R. (2000). "Grammar Meets Genre: Reflections on the 'Sydney School'". Arts: The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association. 22: p. 53. The action research undertaken by the Sydney School led to innovations in teaching practices associated with the development of writing. Research into the understanding of teaching pedagogy uncovered limitations in practice. Initially, emphasis was given only to a writing in the form of a recount text type.Rose, David. (2019). “Writing as linguistic mastery: the development of genre-based literacy pedagogy.” In Handbook of Writing Development, edited by D. Myhill, D. Beard, M. Nystrand and J. Riley. (London: Sage): 2. This mode of writing had a narrow focus and was restrictive of what could be produced by a student within the recount constraint. The Sydney School was developed primarily around a need to extend education into other genres in order to properly encompass a holistic education of writing.Cai, Jing. (2016). “An exploratory study on an integrated genre-based approach for the instruction of academic lexical phrases.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes. 24: 58-71.Mwinlaaru, Isaac N. and Winfred Wenhui Xuan. (2016). “A survey of studies in systemic functional language description and typology.” Functional Linguistics. 3(8): 2. The Sydney School extends study beyond the recount text type to include imaginative narratives, expository and explanatory writing, report styles, descriptive writing, persuasive texts and discursive pieces.Emilia, Emi and Tazanfal Tehseem. (2013). “A synthesis of approaches to teaching writing: A case study in an Australian primary school.” Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences (PJSS). 33(1): 121-135.Hyon, Sunny. (Winter 1996). “Genre in Three Traditions: Implications for ESL.” TESOL Quarterly. 30(4): 700.