Developing a model for exploring the teaching of writing in theory and practice : A collaborative study with reciprocal benefits and challenges

For many student teachers it is a challenge to link theory and practice (Darling-Hammond, 2014). Tomeet this challenge, a model for Reflective Observation of School writing (ROS) was developed through a collaborative approach together with teacher educators and students with the goal to explore the nature of discourses of writing enacted in Swedish school years F–3 and 4–6 (ages 6–12). The aim of this study is to investigate benefits and challenges for researchers, student teachers and Teacher Education in collaborative research on the teaching of writing. The study is underpinned by Ivanič’s (2004, 2017) theoretical and analytical framework for discourses of writing: skills, creativity, process, genre, social practice, socio-political discourses, and discourse of thinking and learning. Based on our ROS-model the student teachers used Ivanic’s framework to reflect on the teaching of writing in school practice. Student teachers for school years 4–6 (n 104) at 5 universities observed writing in school practice. Further, using artefacts of school practice (Ball & Cohen, 1999) student teachers for school years F–3 (n 38) at 1 university, and 4–6 (n 24) at 2 universities studied schoolbooks. The data in this presentation consist of observation protocols, researcher’s notes from reflective seminars, and two questionnaires and were content analysed taking a holistic perspective. Preliminary findings reveal benefits for both the researcher and the student teachers. First, results indicate that all seven discourses proposed by Ivanič were evident to different extent. Second, the students could appropriate the analytical tools presented in the ROS- model gaining insights in howto reflect upon practices from a theoretical framework. Challenges on validity and reliability will be discussed. The study makes an important contribution to the field of the teaching of writing, by linking research theory and methodology with educational practice in teacher education