Exploring the Role of Teacher Identity in Writing Instruction and Assessment

Abstract

Teaching writing in secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms is a complex instructional endeavor shaped by competing curricular demands and institutional constraints (Applebee & Langer, 2011; Graham & Perin, 2007). Although a substantial research base identifies effective practices for teaching writing (Graham & Harris, 2019), secondary teachers often report feeling underprepared to teach and assess writing— a challenge linked to uneven preservice preparation and limited opportunities for sustained professional learning focused on writing pedagogy (Cremin & Oliver, 2017; Graham, 2019). Less is known, however, about how secondary teachers navigate these conditions in their everyday instructional and assessment decision-making. In response, this two-manuscript qualitative dissertation examines writing teacher identity as a key lens through which teachers interpret and enact writing instruction and assessment. Grounded in Wenger’s (1998) theory of communities of practice and his conceptualization of identity as trajectory, this research conceptualizes writing teacher identity as dynamic, participation-based, and continually negotiated over time (Cremin & Baker, 2010). The first manuscript employs an instrumental, collective case study design to examine how the writing teacher identity trajectories of two high school ELA teachers shape their writing pedagogy. Drawing on interviews and naturalistic classroom observations, findings illustrate how teachers’ identities are enacted through instructional and assessment routines, classroom roles, and responses to shared challenges related to assessment, professional isolation, and shifting writing conditions. The second manuscript presents an in-depth instrumental case study of a veteran high school ELA teacher, focusing on how his writing-centered beliefs and practices shape students’ opportunities to participate in writing. Using interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts, this study demonstrates how sustained participation in writing-focused communities of practice can support classroom environments in which writing is positioned as social, iterative, agentive, and oriented toward learning and growth. These two studies contribute to writing research by shifting attention from instructional strategies alone to the identity-mediated participation structures that shape how writing is taught, assessed, and experienced in secondary classrooms. The dissertation concludes by outlining directions for future research that attend to writing assessment as a community-supported practice, novice writing teacher sensemaking during instructional transitions, novice teacher engagement with writing-focused professional communities, and adolescent experiences with writing instruction and assessment.