Recognising Frances Christie’s contribution to our community

We were greatly saddened to hear of the passing of Frances Christie, whose trailblazing contribution to the field of language education has shaped our understanding of genre theory, pedagogic grammar, and writing development. Her colleague, Professor Jim Martin, has described her as ’the institutional rock on which our language in education work was built’. 

During visits to her bedside in recent weeks, she expressed a great interest in the formation of the Language and Literacy in Education Network, seeing it as an important step in providing a base for consolidating and extending the work of the SFL community.

We are grateful for her leadership and inspiration over the decades.