'Something I've carried with me': visibility and vulnerability within the writing journeys of preservice secondary English teachers

Walters, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0089-5432, 2025. 'Something I've carried with me': visibility and vulnerability within the writing journeys of preservice secondary English teachers. Literacy. ISSN 1741-4350

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Abstract

There is an assumption that English teachers identify as writers. This article explores the stories of three secondary preservice English teachers, their descriptions of their writing experiences and their self-perceived vulnerabilities around writing. These narratives originated in a broader research study into the writer identities of preservice English teachers. Situated with a qualitative paradigm, the research design aligned with a relativist ontological approach. An interpretivist epistemology led to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Participants completed qualitative surveys, drew ‘writing rivers’ and reflected on these in semistructured interviews. A story map represents participants' writing journeys over time. Findings suggest that participants associated writing with exposure from an early age. Assessment of writing made participants visible; they experienced negative feedback on their writing as personal criticism and disconnected from writing. Faced with teaching writing as preservice teachers, participants encountered the same pedagogical practices that they found challenging as students. Reflection on their writing histories led participants to explore the source of their writing vulnerabilities and how these were ‘carried’ with them into classroom practice. Findings illustrate how assessment-driven writing pedagogies can erode the writer identities of young people over time. The research therefore has implications for educational practice in a variety of contexts.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Literacy
Creators:	Walters, A.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	14 January 2025
ISSN:	1741-4350
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1111/lit.12396 DOI 2343360 Other
Rights:	© 2025 The Author(s). Literacy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of United Kingdom Literacy Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Institute of Education
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	17 Jan 2025 09:49
Last Modified:	17 Jan 2025 09:49
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52862

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