Research+and+Teaching

=**Emm's Research and Teaching Blog**=

I am interested in primary school teaching generally, the infusion of digital technologies to enrich teaching and learning, the teaching of literacy with a particular focus on the teaching of writing, teacher professional learning, strategies to support school improvement and action research as a research methodology.

October, 2014 I am currently reading and writing about the 'teaching of writing' and 'teachers as writers' and how the latter impacts on the former. I believe that teachers who are actively involved in writing themselves have a clearer understanding of the work of writers. Theresa Cremin (2006) argues that "Teachers of writing need to develop a culture of risk taking in literacy classrooms for both teachers and students" (p.176). Cremin draws on the earlier work of Boler (1999) who suggest that if teachers engage in a ‘pedagogy of discomfort’, which Boler (1999) describes as both an invitation to inquiry and a call to action, they will be better placed to help children to:handle uncertainty, and reduce reliance on formulas or templates for writing.

Stang & Street, 2011-2013) support this idea. They argue that the 'vast majority of professional writers, from poets to technical writers to novelists share two characteristics: they are voracious readers, and they spend considerable time revising their work' (p.34).

The //PEW Internet American Life Project// asked the question, ' What, if anything, connects the formal writing teens do and the informal e-communication they exchange on digital screens?". Similarly we can ask, What, if anything, connects the formal **teaching** of writing teachers do with the formal work related writing that is required of them in their workplaces and, the informal digital communications teachers employ in social situations? Most teachers in western societies including Australia are engaged to some degree in email communications, texting on smart phones and the use of Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram (or whatever is the latest form of social media).

Cremin's (2006) call for teachers of writing to develop a culture of risk taking in literacy classrooms indicates a need for teachers to draw on the concept of a 'pedagogy of discomfort' (Boler, 1999) and so to develop a classroom culture in which risk taking in learning is valued and seen as a necessary part of text creation. In the process, teachers and their students may also learn to see things differently and even come to willingly inhabit what Boler (1999) has termed a ‘more ambiguous and flexible sense of self’ (Boler, 1999, p.176).
 * Classroom Culture **

Boler, M 1999, Feeling power: emotion and education, Routledge, London. Cremin, T 2006, 'Creativity, uncertainty and discomfort: teachers as writers', Cambridge Journal of Education, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 415-33. Stang, K & Street, C 2011-2012, 'Get it Write: Teachers as Writers', //Journal of Content Area Reading//, vol. 99, no. 1, pp. 27-50. most
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