Burrowing and becoming: teaching writing in uncertain times

ABSTRACT

What happens when teachers perceive a growing rift between their pedagogical practice and their students’ lived experiences? How do teachers respond to the uncertainty that such a “relevance gap” can create? In a climate in which literacy research is often pressed to address the achievement gap and to contribute to a sense of certainty, this study explored the relevance gap experienced by teachers in their teaching of writing and the ways that teaching with uncertainty contributed to their practice. Situated in theories of curriculum as currere, local knowledge of practice, and pedagogy as assemblage, the article focuses on the theory and practice of four educators who teach writing in very different and diverse contexts. The rhizo-textual analysis of the data inspired a process of making assemblages to explore context, positionality, and power in teachers’ identities as writers and teachers of writing. Two such assemblages are described, one exploring struggle and the other possibility. In the struggles and uncertainties they experienced, each teacher found new possibilities in different places: in the land, in slam poetry, in story, and in film. Our mappings and analyses suggest that teachers can create new pedagogies of becoming for them and their students by burrowing into uncertainty, process, and social critique.

KEYWORDS:

• Assemblage
• currere
• curriculum
• interviews
• teachers
• writing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle A. Honeyford

Dr. Michelle A. Honeyford is an associate professor in Language and Literacy in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. A former English Language Arts teacher in Canada and the United States, her research interests focus on creating spaces for learning where the cultural identities and ways of knowing of students, teachers, and communities can flourish. She situates her research in writing projects and afterschool spaces where she collaboratively explores multiliteracies, material artefactual literacies, and place in relationship to social justice and civic engagement.

Dr. Jennifer Watt currently finds great joy teaching and learning from education students and in-service teachers at the University of Manitoba. Jennifer taught middle and senior years English Language Arts in Canada and England. Her research focuses on how educators at all stages of their careers can engage in life writing and other practices of vulnerability, discomfort, mindfulness, and compassion to make meaning in moments of crisis in teaching and learning.