The teaching of literature in New South Wales secondary schools has shifted significantly in the period 1990-2001, influenced both by the newer literary theories and by the belated application to the teaching of Shakespeare of active approaches designed to encourage students to think dramatically, think theatrically when approaching playscripts. This essay explores the way in which the author's research papers and the pedagogical materials that they have generated have supported and indeed to some extent been instrumental in bringing about these changes. Beginning with an overview of literature teaching in secondary schools 1990, the essay identifies the questions which have driven the research over the past decade: 1/. Can Reader-Response Theory be made explicit to junior and middle secondary students? Would such knowledge be of value to them? 2/. Are there other aspects of modern literary theory that are worth exploring with secondary students? 3/. Can young readers be encouraged to reflect on their processes of response? Is such an endeavour worthwhile? 4/. How can the teaching of Shakespeare be improved? The last question led the author, during the period of candidature, to explore the puzzling question of why the pedagogy of teaching Shakespeare had lagged so far behind the methods employed in the teaching of other literature, and thus to an historical enquiry covering the teaching of Shakespeare over the past hundred years. At the same time, the author has been concerned to refine some of his teaching methods in order to encourage senior students to explore the plays from, for example, feminist, new historicist and post-colonial perspectives. / Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)