This study acknowledges that what we teach during writing time is shaped by educational and school policies and our theoretical beliefs and classroom experiences, as well as the purposes one expects the written word to fulfil: it recognises that the teaching of writing shifts according to social and political perspectives. Rassool (1999) argued that “each (literacy) perspective brings with it not only its own particular view of what literacy is and what it is for, but also a particular worldview” (p. 36). So what are the literacy/writing theories and practices teachers subscribe to and how do these discourses impact on teachers’ practice?
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In response to teachers’ queries, this thesis asked the “big” question: What is happening out there? What beliefs and practices guide the teaching of writing? The purpose of the research was to develop an understanding of how writing was being taught by a group of teachers in New Zealand primary schools. The study is set out in two phases. First, in Phase One, I interviewed ten teachers who explained their decision- making in the context of the writing classroom. Further analysis of the teachers’ talk was sought to explore the range and the complexity of the Writing Discourses the teachers engaged in, and to interpret and locate their positioning and identities as teachers of writing.
The following research questions guided Phase One:
1. What beliefs and practices characterise a group of New Zealand primary school teachers teaching writing in their classrooms? 2. Why do these teachers teach writing the way they say they do? 3. What Writing Discourses (knowledge/understandings, beliefs and
practices) do they subscribe to?
4. How do the theoretical Writing Discourses shape their identities as teachers of writing?
The second phase of the research project followed one teacher, Kat, into her classroom community of practice to interpret how she apprenticed and scaffolded writing for her Year Two and Year Three students. The following research questions were posed in Phase two:
1. How does one teacher scaffold writing in her classroom? 2. Is there evidence of adjustment and handover for learning? 3. Why does one teacher teach writing a certain way?
4. What writing discourses (knowledge/understandings, beliefs and practices) shape her practice as a teacher of writing?
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Thesis layout
In writing up the thesis the chapters were organised in the following way. Chapter One provides a background to the teaching of writing reflecting the tensions and challenges present in New Zealand’s changing educational landscapes.
The second chapter explores the research literature, categorising writing theories and practices as three Discourses that have influenced and impacted on New Zealand primary school teachers’ pedagogy over the past four decades. Writer, Text and Social are descriptors used to represent different ways of viewing Writing as Discourse.
The third chapter discusses teacher pedagogy as an interactive practice from a sociocultural perspective. It considers classrooms as communities of practice, where teachers apprentice young writers from peripheral participation to writing independence. This chapter views apprenticeship through scaffolding theory and explores the research literature and the ongoing debates which surround this instructional teaching practice. Chapter Four explains the research in terms of methodology and design. It justifies the use of an interpretive stance employing qualitative analysis to interpret and discuss the rich data from the teacher participants. The heuristics developed to support data analysis are explained in this chapter. Issues of ethics and validity are also described.
Chapter Five describes, analyses and interprets the findings from transcripts of ten teachers “talking writing”. A thematic analysis approach is applied to responses from the interview questions asking how teachers organise, plan, teach and assess writing. This chapter provides an overview of what teachers “say they do” when they teach writing.
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Chapter Six refers to the Writing Discourses discussed in Chapter Two and the framework identified in Chapter Four to analyse the teachers’ talk in terms of the Writing Discourses they engaged in. It explores how the teachers are positioned in the various Writing Discourses and how this impacts on their identities as teachers of writing.
Chapter Seven follows one teacher into her classroom and employs a scaffolding heuristic developed to observe participatory scaffolding interactions. The chapter generates findings supporting a socio-cultural model which views learning as a synergy of participatory scaffolding, and views teaching writing as a recursive process and acknowledges that learning takes place over time.
Chapter Eight analyses one teacher’s practice and how she positions herself or is positioned in the Writing Discourses. Her practice is interpreted according to her engagement with Writer, Text and Social Discourses and makes comparisons to the earlier analysis of her interview.
The final chapter provides a discussion of the research findings and highlights the contributions this study has to offer the research community. It draws on the conclusions to make recommendations for further research.
The next two chapters provide an overview of the research literature. Chapter Two reviews the literature in relation to three perspectives of Writing as Discourse. Chapter Three discusses the literature in relation to teaching practices, in particular research related to scaffolding interactions.
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Chapter Two
Locating writing as Discourse
Policy, practice and opinions about literacy education are usually underpinned, consciously or subconsciously, by particular ways of conceptualising how writing can be learned. These different ways of conceptualising literacy lie at the heart of ‘discourses’ in the broadest sense: recognisable associations among values, beliefs and practices which lead to particular forms of situated action, to particular decisions, choices and omissions, as well as to particular wordings. (Ivani!, 2004, p. 220)
2 Introduction
Teachers have experienced continual political, theoretical and pedagogical shifts played out in their writing classrooms. Consequently various historical writing discourses privileging process, genre, and more recently, mutliliteracies approaches have shaped New Zealand teachers’ practices reflecting different ideologies, knowledges and practices as evident in Ministry of Education documents ( Ministry of Education, 1994, 2007; New Zealand Department of Education, 1961). Rassool (1999) argued that literacy is a selective process influenced by groups with vested interests:
Thus it is that some literacy knowledges are chosen for inclusion in educational policy frameworks, whilst others are marginalised, excluded or derided in social and political debate at specific moments in societal development. (Rassool, 1999, p. 39)
Changes in writing policies and related pedagogy posed challenges as teachers’ practice was swayed not only by the political and educational reforms but also by school interpretations of the new policy and