Staging Teachers’ Stories: Performing Understandings of Writing and Teaching Writing

Abstract

In response to concerns about declining writing instruction in K-12 classrooms, this qualitative interview study draws on ethnodrama to better understand teachers’ experiences teaching writing in one Canadian province. Through dramaturgical coding of 21 transcripts, we examine teachers’ objectives, conflicts, and tactics in teaching writing, as well as the significant role of educators’ subjectivities as writers and writing teachers, the settings in which they work, the people who influence their thinking and practice, and their engagement in reflexive inquiry. Two dramatic vignettes explore these themes. We then discuss implications for creating a province-wide professional learning network in critical writing pedagogies.