Teaching, writing and Identity / Frager
Frager asks the important question: “how does a teacher’s opinion of herself or himself as a writer relate to teaching writing?” (p. 274).
The author cites several researchers and their reasons for teachers to write (or be writers?) – This is a question I still need to address. Is everyone who writes an writer? Is a writer automatically called a writer? What is the difference between an author and a writer. What do you call someone who writes but isn’t up to being named “a writer”?
Atwell (1991) – teachers who write can understand their students’ experiences
Susi (1984) – when teachers model writing, students learn
Gillespie (1987) – using the ski instructor metaphor, claimed that you have to practice all the time in order to know how it’s done and that as you wouldn’t want to learn to ski from someone who can’t make it down the slope, you wouldn’t want to learn writing…
Nathan (1991) – only when you do it yourself can you really appreciate the difficulty involved in writing.
Kohl, Lopate and Herndon, (all teacher writers) – you have more realistic expectations of pupils when you know what it’s really about.
Romano (1987) – if writing really is important then we can’t just talk about it.
Romano (and Graves and Murray and Atwell) say the learning is
- through modelling and sharing
- demonstrating techniques
These authors want students to feel the way teacher -writers do about writing, not that they should compose like them.
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Frager expresses concern (p. 277):
“there is reason to believe that teachers who are themselves fearful and reluctant writers influence some students to share that apprehension about writing, for fear and aversion are feelings communicated and learned almost instinctively through nonverbal messages”.
Bruton and Kirby (1987, p. 92) – teachers should at least “comfort with writing to an extent that [one is] able to write quickly without fear” (p. 274).
Frager describes the fine line between writing too well and intimidating your students and a “struggling writer who provides empathetic support” for pupils. He examines how teachers view themselves as writers in order to understand how writing affects their instruction abilities.
32 teachers took part in a workshop. One of the tasks was to find a piece of their own writing and bring it in for discussion. Teachers discussed the texts and then wrote “myself-as-a-writer” papers.
3 separate identity-concept groups and a 4th miscellaneous group:
- “reluctant writers”
- “practical writers” – “writers by need or necessity”
- “integral writers”
Frager asks: “What prior experiences seem to be most instrumental in the formation of a teacher’s identity as a writer?”
From the teacher essays he recognized 4 different factors (p. 276):
- criticism received about their writing in the past
- opportunities (or lack thereof) to make significant choices about their writing
- writing done in response to need at work
- writing for a public audience
The author concludes that “teachers might develop more positive identities as writers if they were provided with experiences that are quite different from ones encountered in many pre- and in-service teacher education programs. Few, if any, programs for teacher development examine and provide instruction for the various types of practical writing teachers do on the job, even though this writing may define a teacher’s self-image as a writer” (p. 276).
See the wonderful example of teacher writing “on the job”- in the “Tempered Radical” blog – March 17, 2008 – a letter home to parents.
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/
See also nb’s brilliant reflection on co-authoring an article for a public audience with two experienced writers – Jan 28, 2008 -
http://myownidentity.blogspot.com/search/label/writing
Frager concludes that teachers need more (p. 277):
- writing workshop experience
- opportunities to write on topics of their choice
- writing for public audiences (see Parr, 2007)
- positive feedback on their writing
Maybe the most important question is: “Can a teacher’s self-image as a writer change?”
My answer is of course YES! YES! YES! (and hopefully my autoethnography will demonstrate that!)
Frager’s answer is yes but not in all teachers.
Frager, A. M. (1994). Teaching, writing and identity. Language Arts, 71(4), 274-278. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/la
