Using constructs of ‘good’ writing to develop ‘a voice of one’s own’ in the primary school classroom

Gonzalez-Diaz, Victorina ORCID: 0000-0001-8856-342X, Parr, Elizabeth and Nourie, Kristi (2025) Using constructs of ‘good’ writing to develop ‘a voice of one’s own’ in the primary school classroom Literacy, 59 (1). pp. 34-54. ISSN 1741-4350, 1741-4369

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Abstract

Partly as result of the predominant ‘narrow’ view of writing in England’s recent school curriculum and assessment (Myhill and Clarkson, 2021), 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 (González-Díaz et al., 2024). This makes it difficult for teachers to promote and engage children with writing in the classroom and – crucially for the present paper – limits pupils’ awareness of the wide stock of resources they can exploit in their practice, thus impacting on the development of their writer identity. This paper reports on the pupil impact of a teacher-led project on ‘good’ writing constructs carried out in Merseyside schools in Spring 2023. Results from this mixed methods study suggest that classroom activities aimed at developing in pupils a holistic concept of ‘good’ school writing provides children with greater awareness of the notion of ‘choice’ in the writing process, hence fostering self-efficacy mechanisms that encourage the resourcefulness, creativity and the individuality essential to writer identity creation.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	writer identity, primary school, writing pedagogy, professional development
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	18 Dec 2024 10:37
Last Modified:	16 Jun 2026 20:22
DOI:	10.1111/lit.12397
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3189282
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