Exploring teacher-writer identities in the classroom: Conceptualising the struggle (original) (raw)
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Exploring teachers’ identity positions as teacher-writers and writer-teachers in the classroom
Turnbill, J. Brocke, E. and Barton, G. (2015) (Eds) Teaching writing in today's classrooms: Looking back to look forward, 2015
In the context of increased international interest in teachers’ literate habitus and identities, this paper discusses teachers’ identities as writers within the classroom. In order to do so, relevant literature is reviewed and empirical data from a case study of two UK primary phase professionals are drawn upon (Cremin and Baker, 2010; 2014). The study which employed interviews, observation and video stimulated review, examined the practices employed by these teachers who sought to position themselves as writers in the classroom. The practices foregrounded were twofold: firstly ‘demonstration writing’, (when the teachers simultaneously thought out loud as they wrote in front of the class), voicing metacognitively the complexities of composing. Secondly, ‘writing alongside’, (when the teachers sat in the midst of the younger writers), following the same compositional remit as the children. The first analytic stage of this study focused on the teachers’ identity positioning (Cremin and Baker, 2010). The second analytic stage explored this in more detail through examining the multimodal interactive discourses indexed in demonstration writing and writing alongside (Cremin and Baker, 2014). The data show that the writing classroom in which the teachers performed and enacted their identities as teacher-writers and writer-teachers was a site of struggle. Ongoing conflict between the teachers’ intended discourse positions/identities and the recognition and acceptance of these attempts by the children was also evidenced. The chapter thus foregrounds the challenge of teachers’ positioning themselves as writers in school. A model for conceptualising teachers’ writing identities on a teacher-writer-writer-teacher identity continuum is offered, and the potential of developing Writing Teachers: ‘teachers who write and writers who teach’ is explored.
Putting yourself on the line : writers teaching writing in primary schools
2014
The participants Writers and their texts Early writer identities 281 Factors encouraging a writer identity Writing as a gift Motivation to write Writers as teachers 291 Bringing a writer identity into the classroom Multiple identities 10 Conclusion 318 This study in context Writer-teachers and identity Reflexive analysis Further implications The contribution o f this study References 341 Appendix 1 358 Appendix 2 363 Because Andy's firs t interview was conducted before I had finalised the schedule, I needed to return to carry out a second interview some time later. For these two reasons, the interview data fo r this participant is greater than fo r any other. Each interview took place in Andy's home and lasted around two hours. Andy was happy to endorse the firs t draft o f this chapter though admitted that he found parts o f i t 'unsettling'. In particular he feared that in places his desire to give a fu ll and honest answer may not have shown him in the best possible lig h t He made detailed comments on the draft, eith er to give supporting inform ation o r to clarify misunderstandings.
Teachers as Writers: implications for identity
Cremin T, Baker S (2014) Teachers as Writers; a PETAA occasional research paper PETAA. Paper 194. , 2014
Writers’ identities matter: influenced by personal histories and experiences, our identities as writers influence the way in which we approach writing and are likely to influence our teaching of writing. Teachers’ writing identities deserve more recognition and development in schooling. This PETAA paper, drawing upon research in this area, seeks to enable teachers to reflect upon themselves as writers outside the school context, and explores multiple ways in which teachers can model being a writer in the classroom. It provides some examples and illustrations of the benefits and challenges involved in teachers’ positioning themselves as writers in the classroom.
This paper analyses data from the Community of Writers project, which saw 15 final year undergraduate trainee teachers teach creative writing and write creatively in a primary school for a period of 10 weeks. Taking as its starting point the research-informed understanding that effective teaching of writing involves the teacher writing for their class (Dombey 2013), this paper explores the impact of the project upon both trainees' perceptions of their identities as writers and their creative writing pedagogies. Engaging in theoretical discussions as co-researchers, a paradox emerges in the trainees' reflections: on the one hand, the trainees perceive their unstructured teaching of creative writing as being threatened by neoliberalism; on the other hand, discourse analysis of their reflections reveals that they are often dependent upon neoliberalism's structured approaches when it comes to actually writing both with their class and outside of the class. This is conceptualised as resulting from both the trainees' own neoliberal education and the low-status " positional identities " (Holland, Lachicotte and Cain, 1998) afforded to them as writers by societal discourse, as demonstrated by Foucault's " author principle " (2001, p.214). Though the research project is small-scale, the key recommendation is that if we want our teachers to teach creative writing in more creative ways then it is vital that Universities continue to play a key role in teacher education.
Exploring the discursively constructed identities of a teacher-writer teaching writing
2014
In the light of international interest in teachers’ literate identities and practices, this paper addresses the under-researched area of teachers’ writing identities. It examines the multimodal interactive discursive practices at play in the writing classroom of a teacher in the UK who, in order to support the pupils, consciously positions herself as a writer in this context; seeking to model engagement through demonstrating writing in whole class sessions and composing alongside pupils in groups. Drawing on previous empirical work which explored the fluid identities performed and enacted by this teacher (Cremin and Baker, 2010), the paper, examining video material, affords detailed analysis of the multimodal interactive discourses indexed in demonstration writing and writing alongside. It maps specific instances of discursive practice onto a model for conceptualising teachers’ writing identities: a teacher-writer, writer-teacher identity continuum. It reveals on-going conflict between the teacher’s intended discourse positions/identities and the recognition (Gee, 2005) and acceptance of these attempts by the pupils. The paper, in contributing new understandings about the microscopic, fluid and conflictual dimensions of identity positioning in these particular practice contexts, highlights the importance of the embodied discoursal voice of the pedagogue. Additionally, it offers a new analytic tool for understanding how teacher behaviour opens and constrains identity positions and argues that multimodal interaction in teaching writing deserves increased methodological attention.
Cremin T, Baker S (2014) Teachers as Writers; a PETAA occasional research paper; Sydney; PETAA
Writers' identities matter: influenced by personal histories and experiences, our identities as writers influence the way in which we approach writing and are likely to influence our teaching of writing. Teachers' writing identities deserve more recognition and development in schooling. This PETAA paper, drawing upon research in this area, seeks to enable teachers to reflect upon themselves as writers outside the school context, and explores multiple ways in which teachers can model being a writer in the classroom. It provides some examples and illustrations of the benefits and challenges involved in teachers' positioning themselves as writers in the classroom.
How does the act of writing impact on Discursively Mediated Professional Identities? A Case Study of Three Teachers explores the effects participation as writers has on the identities teachers take on when they are both writers who teach and teachers who write. This paper reflects upon one strand of a larger research project that examines the relationship between teachers' participation as writers and their perceptions of the manner in which this has an impact on their effectiveness as teachers of writing. It draws on interview data with volunteers from the larger study. This paper focuses on only three interview participants as it explores their encounters as writers as they engaged in the 'risky' business of being writers, within and beyond school. A narrative inquiry methodology was used to interrogate the data about the teachers' lived experience of being writers, as well as
‘Shoot for the moon!’ Students' identities as writers in the context of the classroom
British Journal of Special Education, 2011
A study of students' identities as writers was carried out in the classroom of a New Zealand primary teacher who had been formally identified by a national body of teachers as having excellent practice in supporting literacy acquisition. The researchers, Professor Janice Wearmouth, from the University of Bedfordshire, Mere Berryman, from the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and Lisa Whittle, from the Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand, aimed to compare high and low literacy achievers' identities as writers within the context of this teacher's pedagogy and the learning environment of her classroom. The researchers concluded that all students, both high and low achievers, were developing very positive writing identities in a context where the teacher's method of supporting her students' writing was very well planned through a process-writing approach. This teacher had a very high degree of subject and pedagogical content knowledge and an acute awareness of her students' literacy learning needs. Her approach had an immediacy of responsiveness in relation to every student's learning and, above all, had recognition of the overwhelming importance of positive relationships in the classroom, teacher to student and peer to peer.