"We Just Don't Write Like That in Class": Reconceptualizing Professional Knowledge for Writing Teachers

• In Event: Teachers on Writing and Writing Instruction

Abstract

This study explored the professional knowledge five high school English teachers relied upon to implement their school’s Common Writing Assessment initiative. Employing an instrumental case study design with interviews, think alouds, and participant observations, it drew on sense-making (Spillane, et al., 2002) to theorize two aspects of teachers’ professional knowledge for teaching writing that have not been widely explored: “reform knowledge” and their “relational knowledge.” Both forms of knowledge were particularized, rather than generalizable, deeply informed by teachers’ interactions with individual students and their own experiences of schooling. Teachers drew upon this knowledge differently in implementing the school’s writing initiative, relying on different instructional strategies, but with a common aim of preparing students to succeed on the standardized writing assessments.

Author

• Joelle Pedersen, Boston College