Writer Identity and the Teaching and Learning of Writing

Writer Identity and the Teaching and Learning of Writing is a groundbreaking book which addresses what it really means to identify as a writer in educational contexts and the implications for writing pedagogy. It conceptualises writers’ identities, and draws upon empirical studies to explore their construction, enactment and performance. Focusing largely on teachers’ identities and practices as writers and the writer identities of primary and secondary students, it also encompasses the perspectives of professional writers and highlights promising new directions for research. With four interlinked sections, this book offers: Nuanced understandings of how writer identities are shaped and formed; Insights into how classroom practice changes when teachers position themselves as writers alongside their students; New understandings of what this positioning means for students’ identities as writers and writing pedagogy; and Illuminating case studies mapping young people's writing trajectories. With an international team of contributors, the book offers a global perspective on this vital topic, and makes a new and strongly theorised contribution to the field. Viewing writer identity as fluid and multifaceted, this book is important reading for practising teachers, student teachers, educational researchers and practitioners currently undertaking postgraduate studies. Contributors include: Teresa Cremin, Terry Locke, Sally Baker, Josephine Brady, Diane Collier, Nikolaj Elf, Ian Eyres, Theresa Lillis, Marilyn McKinney, Denise Morgan, Debra Myhill, Mary Ryan, Kristin Stang, Chris Street, Anne Whitney and Rebecca Woodard.

Preface Richard Andrews Foreword Teresa Cremin and Terry Locke Section A: Writing, writers and identity 1. Conceptualizing Writing and Identity Ian Eyres 2. Professional writers’ identities: The perceived influence of formal education and early reading Teresa Cremin, Theresa Lillis, Debra Myhill and Ian Eyres Section B: Writing identity and the development of teachers 3. ‘I’m not a good writer’: Supporting teachers’ writing identities in a university course Denise N. Morgan 4. Addressing resistance: encouraging in-service teachers to think of themselves as writers Chris Street and Kristin K. Stang 5. Developing the teacher-writer in professional development Anne Whitney Section C: Teachers as writers: Shifting practices and positions in the classroom 6. Being a writer and teaching writing on the ‘rackety bridge’: Through the lens of new teachers Marilyn McKinney 7. Teachers’ identities as writers: Teacher, support staff and pupils’ accounts of the role of emotion in the writing classroom Sally Baker and Teresa Cremin 8. Working toward ‘I’m a writer and a pretty good writer’: An elementary teacher legitimising students’ writerly identities while authenticating her own Rebecca Woodard 9. Developing a whole-school culture of writing Terry Locke Section D: Students’ writing identities 10. Being in the world’: Students’ writing identities beyond school Josephine Brady 11. Glancing sideways at young writers becoming Diane R. Collier 12. Taught by bitter experience: A timescales analysis of Amalie’s development of writer identity Nikolaj Elf 13. Writing reflexively: Students and teachers shaping texts and identities Mary Ryan Afterword Teresa Cremin and Terry Locke Index

Teresa Cremin is Professor of Education (Literacy) at The Open University, UK. Terry Locke is Professor of Arts and Language Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand.