The preparation of student teachers to be effective teachers of writing requires attention to both their writing skills and their personal confidence. When teachers have confidence in themselves as writers and strong writer identities, they are likely to better placed to develop strong writer identities in their own students. It is suggested…

Partly as result of the predominant 'narrow' view of writing in England's recent school curriculum and assessment, current primary school pupils often hold a skills-oriented view of 'good' writing for a substantially longer period than has traditionally been reported in the literature. This makes it difficult for teachers to promote and engage…

This paper examines the nature of the out-of-school writing practices of three primary-aged children aged 9-10. In particular, it explores the writing these children chose to undertake at home including 'for school' writing, completed at home. The study's findings reveal the ways in which these three, developing young writers engage and interact…

In this paper, I draw on two childhood ethnographies to ask basic questions about the foundation of child writing. The first question is, "where does writing come from in young children's lives?" Answering this question will lead us to childhood play as the foundation of writing. The second question is, "how do educators negotiate…