Exploring early primary school teachers understanding of their practice to support early writing in a private school of Karachi

Pedagogical practices of teachers are influenced by many factors such as personal and professional experiences, teacher training, socio-cultural environment, theoretical knowledge and the institutional context in which they work (Lim & Torr, 2007). It is important to understand teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning because it help to understand their classroom practice and decisions about creating learning environment for children and strategies used by teachers in these environments (Pardhan & Fernandes-Faria, 2013). This qualitative exploratory study investigated early primary school teachers understanding of their practice to support early writing in a private community based school of Karachi, Pakistan. Two early primary teachers were interviewed and observed over a period of time to know their beliefs and practices. Overall eight themes emerged from the study. The finding of the study show that teachers’ supports children in developing their early writing skills by providing different materials to them such as story books, flashcards, and worksheets. However teachers are not aware about how children learn writing in a multilingual context. In addition they want to learn about early writing skills to help children in a better way. The study findings also suggest that the teachers believed that they have a crucial role to play to support children’s early writing development. Moreover, the study findings emerged that the teachers strongly believed that clear instructions support in children’s writing development. It was evident from their practices as well that both the teachers gave instructions to support children in developing their early writing. Morrow (2012) suggests that children learn about writing through teacher’s explicit instructions and by observing others. The findings recommended that early childhood teachers should go for education programs and professional development to get awareness about early literacy and early writing in particular