A shift in writer identity: teacher reflections on how their sense of self as writers informs practice

Abstract

This paper explores the experiences and reflections of primary teachers who participated in a UK collaborative professional development that focussed on developing teacher-writer identity through online writing workshops. The notion that teachers who identify as writers better understand their pupils as writers is central to the study; however, accountability pressures and a lack of confidence in the teaching of writing can create environments that stifle professional growth and pedagogical change in the teaching of writing. The findings within this ethnographically positioned study highlight that sustained engagement with critically reflexive personal writing activities, within an empathetic, collaborative space, leads to shifts in teacher-writer identity and shifts in practice, which ultimately impact on pupils' experiences as writers. Indeed, teacher engagement with crafting personal writing experiences and the self-understanding they gained seemed to be a catalyst for teachers wanting their pupils to experience the same sense of writer agency and emotional connection to writing. Findings also reveal that shifts in practice were enacted in different ways and were determined by teaching experience and subject leadership position. Significantly, although tensions were experienced, all the teachers represented in this study expressed feeling empowered with the pedagogical and organisational changes they were able to make at their level.