Our vision

Our vision is of a world with a deeper knowledge, understanding, and enjoyment of the English language and its literatures; a world in which the value of the study of English to education, career, and personal life is recognised by all.

Find out how we’re going to get there: download our 2019 – 2023 Strategy

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Explore our work

We are a learned society, membership association, and registered charity incorporated by Royal Charter: and whoever you are, we hope you’ll find something in our offer to members that appeals to you.

  • We work for positive change on behalf of our members by responding to national consultations. As a member, your voice will be heard in important discussions about research, teaching, and learning.
  • Led by our Education Committees, our research explores the state of our discipline, and allows us to work with government and policy-makers on behalf of our members and the discipline as a whole.
  • We foster discussions of methods of teaching and learning English at all academic levels. Our renowned publications are read in schools, libraries, and universities all over the world, making sure that all our members can share research, best practice, and cutting-edge pedagogies.
  • Our prizes and awards recognise the best early-career scholarship in the field, offer opportunities to younger scholars to develop their thinking, and celebrate the best children’s picture books as chosen by practising teachers and education experts.
  • We deliver practical, affordable, and accessible support to teachers of English at Early Years, Primary, and Secondary levels through CPD events and a curated collection of online resources.
  • We celebrate English’s role as an essential element in education and the community at large.
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Publications
English: Shared Futures Image of logos, The English Association
English: Shared Futures
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Prizes & Awards
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Events
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Event Archive
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Discover War Poets

Our priorities

We have placed the challenge of encouraging even more young people to enrol onto English A Levels at the heart of our strategy for the next five years. In 2020 our flagship conference, English: Shared Futures, will celebrate the richness of English Studies that we believe should characterise students’ experience at GCSE. Through the Common English Forum, we are working to coordinate the effort by organisations like ours across the subject to stem this decline and restore the fortunes of English.

Our values

The English Association is committed to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion. All members of the Association are assured the right of equitable, fair and respectful treatment. We adopt the principle of diversity and equality in our organisational structures and in all of our policies and activities. We also use our influence as an organisation to promote this principle in the subject community at large.

  • We are committed to continuous learning and improvement for our staff and our members.
  • We believe the best work is done in the spirit of collaboration and communication.
  • We welcome diversity and richness of opinion and ideas.
  • We strive to embody equality in our organisational structures, policies and activities.