The teaching of writing at teacher education programs in Finland and Sweden: Integrating theory and practice
Submitted by:
Sofia Jusslin
Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate student teachers’ understanding of and perspectives for developing the teaching of writing. Focusing on writing pedagogy in teacher education is crucial because writing is central to pupils’ education, employment, meaningful lives, and citizenship in a global world. For teachers to be able to support pupils in their writing development, teacher education is a crucial instance to prepare student teachers for teaching writing. Nevertheless, research has highlighted challenges in integrating theory and practice in teacher education (Darling-Hammond, 2014). This also concerns theoretical understandings of writing and implementing such understandings in practice.
This paper builds on a research project conducted in collaboration between primary teacher education programs at two universities in Finland and Sweden. A model for Reflective Observation of School writing (Sturk, 2022) has been used, aiming to prepare student teachers for the teaching of writing across disciplines. The model builds on the theory of discourses of writing (Ivanič, 2004) and has been developed to apply a multimodal understanding of writing (Kress). The model was implemented in 2022–2023 and included lectures, seminars, and classroom observations in school practice. The data include student teachers’ examinations and survey answers, and three university lecturers' research notes. These data are analysed with thematic analysis.
Results suggest that the model has the potential to provide the student teachers with tools to analyse and reflect over the teaching of writing, and the reflective seminar seemingly provides the student teachers a scaffolded opportunity to develop a common terminology to talk about the teaching of writing across disciplines. In the paper presentation, we present the results and discuss implications for teacher education and research on the teaching of writing.
References
Darling-Hammond, L. (2014). Strengthening Clinical Preparation: The Holy Grail of Teacher Education. Peabody journal of education, 89(4), 547–561.
Ivanič, R. (2004). Discourses of Writing and Learning to Write. Language and Education, 18(3), 220–245, DOI: 10.1080/09500780408666877
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. Routledge.
Sturk, E. (2022). Writing across the curriculum in compulsory school in Sweden. [Doctoral thesis, Umeå University].