Carol Atherton

Carol Atherton is a British English teacher who has written "on the teaching of English Literature, curricular reform and the nature of disciplinary knowledge".

Life and work
Atherton is from Merseyside. She graduated with a degree in English from St Edmund Hall, Oxford, gained a PGCE at Manchester Metropolitan University, and a PhD at the University of Nottingham in 2003.

Atherton has taught English since 1996 and is currently Head of English at Spalding Grammar School in Lincolnshire. She was made a Fellow of the English Association in 2009. She has written "on the teaching of English Literature, curricular reform and the nature of disciplinary knowledge".

Personal life
She is an adoptive parent.

Publications

 * Defining Literary Criticism: Scholarship, Authority and the Possession of Literary Knowledge, 1880–2002. Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 978-1403946799.
 * Teaching English Literature 16–19: an Essential Guide. Routledge, 2013. With Andrew Green and Gary Snapper. ISBN 978-0415528238.
 * Reading Lessons: the books we read at school, the conversations they spark and why they matter. Fig Tree, 2024. ISBN 978-0241629482.