Developing Discourse Roles and Positionings - an Ecological Theory of Writing Development Writing Development: Multiple Perspectives, Institute of Education, University of London Jon Smidt, Sør-Trøndelag University College, Trondheim, Norway July 3, 2009

An ecological theory of writing development SPEECH GENRES Individual utterances Mikhail Bakhtin (1986)

The Metaphor of Ecology Gregory Bateson (1972): Steps to an Ecology of Mind David Barton (1994): Literacy. An introduction to the ecology of written language: Originating in biology, ecology is the study of the interrelationship of an organism and its environment. When applied to humans, it is the interrelationship of an area of human activity and its environment. It is concerned with how the activity – literacy in this case – is part of the environment and at the same time influences and is influenced by the environment. An ecological approach takes as its starting-point this interaction between individuals and their environments. (Barton, 1994 : 29)

An ecological theory of writing development values and beliefs in society culture specific norms and expectations discourses in the classroom texts individual writers writers’ sense of who they are or want to be in their writing

Individual utterances SPEECH GENRES Individual utterances Discourse roles Positionings Bakhtin 1986 Ongstad 1999, Smidt 2002 Mead  Goffman 1959 Ivanic 1998

Writing Development Example1: Challenging Norms and Values Anne Haas Dyson: Writing superheroes. Contemporary childhood, popular culture, and classroom literacy (1997)

Dyson 1993: the link between composing a text and composing a place for oneself in the social world (p.229)

Dyson 1997: Thus, our texts are formed at the intersection of a social relationship between ourselves as composers and our addressees and an ideological one between our own psyches (or inner meanings) and the words, cultural signs, available to us. (p.4)

Writing Development Example 2: Reciprocal positionings Jon Smidt: ‘Double histories in multivocal classrooms: Notes toward an ecological account of writing’ Written Communication Vol 19 No 3, July 2002

Writing development is multidimensional norms of school writing Interactional dimension teacher students sociocultural or ideological dimension Time dimension

Writing Development Example 3: Struggling to Create a Discoursal Self Roz Ivanic: Writing and identity : The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. (1998)

Ivanic 1998 sees /../ every act of academic writing as, among other things, the writer’s struggle to create a discoursal self which removes the tension between their autobiographical self and the possibilities for self-hood available in the academic community. (p. 336)

Used about writing development, the metaphor of ‘ecology’ turns our attention to the influence of all participants in the writing classroom, student writers, classmates and teachers, as well as the represented cultures and norms.

norms of school writing Social interactionists teacher students Social constructionists

Individual utterances SPEECH GENRES Reference Individual utterances expressivity addressivity Mikhail Bakhtin (1986)  Ongstad 1999

Examples taken from: Dyson, Anne Haas (1997) Writing superheroes. Contemporary childhood, popular culture, and classroom literacy. New York: Teachers College, Columbia Univ. Ivanic, Roz (1998) Writing and identity : The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Smidt, Jon (2002) ‘Double histories in multivocal classrooms: Notes toward an ecological account of writing’ Written Communication Vol 19 No 3, July 2002: 414-443

Other references: Bakhtin, M. M. (1981) The dialogic imagination. Four essays (M. Holquist, Ed. and Trans.), Austin, TX: University of Texas Press Bakhtin, M. M.(1986) Speech genres and other late essays (C. Emerson and M. Holquist, Eds., V. W. McGee, Trans.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press Barton, D. (1994) Literacy. An introduction to the ecology of written language. Oxford: Blackwell Bateson, G. (1972) Steps to an ecology of mind. New York: Ballantine Books Cherry, R. (1988) ‘Ethos versus Persona: Self-representation in written discourse’. Written Communication, 5, 251-276 Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M.(eds) (1993) The Powers of Literacy: A Genre Approach to Teaching Writing. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press Dyson, A. H. (1993) The social worlds of children learning to write in an urban primary school. New York: Teachers College Press Evensen, L.S. (2002) ‘Convention from below: negotiating interaction and culture in argumentative writing’. Written Communication Vol 19, No. 3p 382-413 Fairclough, N. 1992 Discourse and social change. Cambridge UK: Polity Press Goffman, E. (1990) The presentation of self in everyday life. London: Penguin Books (Original work published 1959) Halliday, M.A.K. (1994) An introduction to functional grammar, Second edition. London & New York: Edward Arnold Halliday, M.A.K. and Martin, J.R. (1993) Writing science: literacy and discursive power. London & Pittsburgh: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning. Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Mead, G. H. (1967) Mind, self, and society from the standpoint of a social behaviorist. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, Phoenix Books. (Original work published 1934) Nystrand, M. (1986) The structure of written communication. Studies in reciprocity between writers and readers. Orlando: Academic Press Nystrand, M. (1989) ‘A social-interactive model of writing.’ Written Communication, 6, 66-85 Nystrand, M. (1990) ‘Sharing words: The effects of readers on developing writers.’ Written Communication, 7, 3-24 Nystrand, M., Gamoran, A., & Carbonaro, W. (1998) Towards an ecology of learning: the case of classroom discourse and its effects on writing in high school English and social studies. Albany NY/Madison WI: National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement/Wisconsin Center for Education Research Report Series 2.34 Ongstad, S. (1999). Self-positioning(s) and students’ task reflexivity—a semiotic macro concept exemplified. Journal of Structural Learning and Intelligent Systems 14(2), 1-28 Rommetveit, R. (1974). On message structure: A framework for the study of language and communication. London: Wiley Sperling, M. (1994): ‘Constructing the perspective of teacher-as-reader: A framework for studying response to student writing’. Research in the Teaching of English, 28, 175-203 Sperling, M. (1995) Revealing the teacher-as-reader: A framework for discussion and learning (Center for the Study of Writing Occasional Paper No. 40). Berkeley: National Writing Project Swales, J. (1990) Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, New York, Port Chester, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press