Manosphere algorithms are powerful but English teachers can give students the tools to push back. Mel talks with feminist researcher Dr Stephanie Westcott about online misogyny, critical digital literacy, finding ‘green flag’ influencers, and the unique role English classrooms can play in helping young people navigate power and relationships. 

Dr Stephanie Wescott is a feminist lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Education at Monash University where her work focuses on gender, schooling and violence prevention. Her research examines the influence of misogynistic and manosphere ideologies in education settings, school-based gendered violence, and the institutional conditions that shape how gendered harms are recognised, responded to and prevented in schools.

Show notes

Literature 

Frankenstein, The Handmaids Tale, Othello, poetry by Wisława Szymborska, Sylvia Plath, Mary Oliver 

Podcasts

Inklings Bookclub
Dua Lipa: At Your Service

Scholarship

Schooling Misogyny Exposing and Eliminating the Influence of the Manosphere in Education Settings by Dr Stephanie Wescott and Steven Roberts

Ging, D. (2019). Alphas, betas, and incels: Theorizing the masculinities of the manosphere. Men and masculinities, 22(4), 638-657. 

Pangrazio, L. (2016). Reconceptualising critical digital literacy. Discourse: Studies in the cultural politics of education, 37(2), 163-174. 

Kate Manne feminist philosopher https://substack.com/@katemanne 

Jane Gilmore’s Fixed It headlines https://janegilmore.com/fixedit-headlines/ 

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Chris talks with Mel about how high expectations and genuine relationships can transform lives and classrooms. The founder of the Stronger Smarter Institute shares the power of storytelling, challenging low expectations, and helping students see themselves in English. From Shakespeare and Animal Farm to community connection and cultural identity, this conversation is a powerful reminder of why teaching matters.

Dr Chris Sarra is a Gurang Gurang and Taribelang Bunda man, founder and CEO of the Stronger Smarter Institute, and a nationally respected education reformer. For more than 30 years, he has championed high-expectations leadership, Indigenous education, and positive change across schools, communities, and government.

Show notes:

Stronger Smarter – Educational Institution

Good Morning, Mr Sarra – Dr Chris Sarra (memoir)

Julius Caesar – William Shakespeare

Animal Farm – George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) – George Orwell

From Little Things Big Things Grow – Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody

In this episode, Dr Chris Sarra acknowledges the powerful influences of his parents and teachers; Dr Gary MacLennan (teacher educator and mentor to Chris); and the work of artists Deborah Mailman, Wesley Enoch, and Tara June Winch.

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Haley talks with Mel about what it takes to make English classrooms inclusive for students with language and attentional difficulties. This episode is packed with actionable strategies to transform access for students who struggle to translate ideas into words, without adding to the pressure of your already too-busy working life.

Show notes:

Find out more about Haley’s scholarly and professional work here.

Purchase the Accessible Assessment Pedagogies book  here. You’ll find loads of resources along with the accessibility of pedagogy scale.

Find out more about learning and memory by exploring this range of handy explainers.

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Jane Harper speaks with Julie Arnold at the ETAQ State Conference about all things gothic and crime, story and language. From her debut The Dry to her popular forward catalogue of the Aaron Falk and standalone novels, we learn about what makes her tick as a writer and how English teachers can make the most of popular fiction in the senior English classroom.

Bio:

Jane Harper is internationally bestselling author of the The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors. Her books are published in forty territories worldwide, and The Dry has been adapted into a major motion picture starring Eric Bana. Jane has won numerous top awards including the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year, the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year, the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel, and the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year. Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK, and now lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.

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Joanna Erskine talks with Mel about why we must bother with the Bard and lifts the curtain on the emerging Bell Shakespeare method — a joyful, practical, deeply human way to engage students with English’s most revered playwright’s oeuvre. If you’re ready to ditch the 40‑slide PowerPoint and teach Shakespeare with purpose and power, this one’s for you.

Joanna Erskine (she/her) is an award-winning playwright, producer, speaker, teacher and arts education specialist. Joanna is the Head of Education at Bell Shakespeare, working with the company for 18+ years overseeing artistic direction and delivery of its renowned national education program.

Show notes:

Plays mentioned: The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello 

For all things Bell Shakespeare including the National Teacher Mentorship and the Bell Shakespeare method, head to the education section of the Bell Shakespeare website.

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Why do big feelings matter in English, and what happens when teachers make space for them?

In this episode of Hoops of Steel, Mel is joined by educator and researcher Alice Elwell to explore the transformative potential of emotional inquiry in the English classroom. Alice frames affect not as something to manage or minimise, but as a vital force. Students’ (and teachers’!) emotions can be an energy that fuels student agency, deepens interaction, and opens up new pathways for learning about human experience.

This episode invites English teachers to step boldly into affective work, to refuse dispassionate analysis, and to recognise that in English, thinking and feeling are never separate.

Bio:

Alice Elwell is a full-time school leader who teaches Language and Literature, Global Politics, and Theory of Knowledge at The Queensland Academies Creative Industries — known locally as QACI. She is a PhD candidate whose work explores emotional inquiry through literature in the classroom.

Show notes:

Elwell, A. (2023). "Student Voice, Choice, and Agency: The Benefits of Co-designing English Curriculum." English in Australia 58(2): 47.

Elwell, A. (2021). Critical affective literacy, feminist pedagogies, and democracy: exploring possibilities for the high school English classroom. In New perspectives on Education for Democracy (pp. 138-152). Routledge.

Macmillan, D. (2025). Every brilliant thing. Bloomsbury Publishing.

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Why do gothic and speculative stories grip young people, and what do they offer students in uncertain times?

In this episode of Hoops of Steel, Melanie Ralph is joined by Brisbane writer and academic Kim Wilkins, also known as Kimberley Freeman. Kim has published more than 30 books in over 20 languages and is a Professor of Writing and Associate Dean of Humanities Research at the University of Queensland.

Together, they explore gothic literature and speculative fiction as ways of pushing back against narrow ideas of learning, success, and creativity. Drawing on haunted houses, headstrong girls, monsters, and the Australian landscape, Kim reflects on why gothic stories endure, not as escapism, but as transportation: a way of stepping beyond the mundane and opening up space for uncertainty, imagination, and possibility.

This emphasis on possibility runs through Kim’s thinking about teaching and writing, especially at a time when creativity is often measured by outputs rather than process. As she explains:

“Writing isn’t just about outputs, it’s about process. And it’s in the process that we learn things.”

This episode invites English teachers to reclaim gothic and speculative fiction as powerful tools for imagination, defiance, and hope, and to help students imagine lives that are more than merely probable.

Shownotes:

Connect with Kim Wilkins (also published as Kimberley Freeman):  https://kimberleyfreeman.com/

Books and texts mentioned in this episode

• Paradise Lost by John Milton (Books I & II)
• Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings
• Honeyeater by Kathleen Jennings
• The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham
• Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
• The Well by Elizabeth Jolley
• Queersland (anthology)
• Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow
• Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang

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Turn closed questions into open doors: Marcus Luther shows how to fuel thinking, talking, and learning.

In this episode, Julie Arnold speaks with Oregon-based English teacher and podcaster Marcus Luther about building classrooms where curiosity crackles and every student’s voice matters. From quick wins that draw even the quietest students into conversation, to feedback moments that shift self‑belief, Marcus shares practical strategies wrapped in warmth and optimism. Along the way, Marcus champions the purpose of public education, celebrates the communities we build in our rooms, and offers a hopeful vision for what students can do when we trust them.

Marcus Luther has taught high school English in Oregon for 14 years and co‑hosts The Broken Copier, a podcast and resource hub that centres teacher voices and shares practical tools for the classroom. His work is grounded in reflective practice, inclusive culture, and keeping collaboration at the heart of English teaching.

Shownotes:

• More strategies and resources from Marcus on The Broken Copier.
• Kagan, S. (2013). Kagan Cooperative Learning. Kagan Publishing.
• Thompson, M. Annotation processes and questioning frameworks
• Gallagher, K. (2006). Teaching Adolescent Writers. Stenhouse Publishers.

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What stories shape us — and how do we learn to tell our own?

In this episode, Julie Arnold speaks with playwright, director and creative leader Wesley Enoch about the power of storytelling in education, the importance of honouring lived experience, and the joy of building spaces where students feel seen and heard. This episode is a warm, wise, and energising conversation for teachers who want to help students express identity with clarity and confidence.

Wesley Enoch AM is a playwright and director of Indigenous theatre. He hails from Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah), and is a Nunukul Nuugi man of the Quandamooka Nation. Wesley has been the Artistic Director of six major festivals across Australia including the Sydney and Brisbane Festivals, and was the Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre Company from 2010 to 2015. His play The 7 Stages of Grieving, co-written with Deborah Mailman, is a widely studied and performed landmark of contemporary Australian theatre. Wesley is currently Professor of Practice (Drama) at QUT and the inaugural Indigenous Chair in the Creative Industries.

Shownotes:

📚 Recommended Reading:
 • Boas, E. & Kerin, R. (2021). Novel Ideas: Teaching fiction in the middle years. AATE.
• Shipp, C. (2023). Listening from the Heart. AATE.
• Worrell, T. (2022). Profiles of practice: Influences when selecting texts to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in English. English in Australia, 57(1), 5–14.

📦 Where to buy books:
 • Black Inc.
• Magabala Books

🛠️ Classroom Resource:
 • You Can Teach: Teaching First Nations Perspectives 

Find out more about Wesley Enoch at:
 🔗 Wesley Enoch’s page at QUT

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How does a English teacher transform professional learning into great classroom practice? How do you take a set text, pick the bits that are going to engage your students and prepare them for what comes next? From medieval Icelandic sagas to Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites, Dan joins Julie to talk about how deep reading, writing, and meaningful classroom encounters help students grow and keep teachers loving what they do. 

Dan has taught English in public schools for most of this century and long enough to know the essentials don’t change – fads, policies and strategies notwithstanding. He is trepidatious about each new syllabus and prescribed book lists (especially if they prevent him teaching Hamlet), but he’ll work with them because he loves good books and thinks we have a duty to share them with children. He also loves the way languages work, Shakespeare, and all things Icelandic.

Show notes:

Dan learnt a lot from The Secret of Literacy: Making the Implicit, Explicit by David Didau and Reading to Learn

Dan spoke extensively about teaching Hannah Kent's Burial Rites

Dan’s next read is The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (with Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko still waiting patiently on the shelf)

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