The Dialogic Interplay.pdf (2.26 MB)
Download fileThe Dialogic Interplay of Writing and Teaching Writing: Teacher-Writers’ Talk and Textual Practices across Contexts
journal contribution
posted on 20.01.2016, 00:00 authored by R. WoodardThis study uses dialogic theory to understand teacher-writers’ practices across in- and out-ofschool
contexts. Using case study methods to closely observe and interview a middle school teacher
and a high school teacher, as well as analyze their writing, the study identified similarities in the
teachers’ appropriations of language, textual practices, and ideologies across contexts. However,
each teacher appropriated distinct practices in discipline-specific ways, with one focused on
the literate practices of creative writers and the other focused on the literate practices of online,
networked writers. These contrastive examples highlight ways in which teacher-writers’ literate
and instructional activities dialogically inform each other in both similar and distinct ways.
Ultimately, I make the argument that dialogic perspectives that attend to teachers’ out-of-school
practices provide richer, more complex understandings of instructional practice than currently
popular conceptions of “best practices” and “value-added” teaching.