Gabrielle Cliff Hodges

Place-Related Identities Through Texts: From Interdisciplinary Theory to Research Agenda

ABSTRACT The implications of the transdisciplinary spatial turn are attracting growing interest in a broad range of areas related to education. This paper draws on a methodology for interdisciplinary thinking in order to articulate a new theoretical configuration of place-related identity, and its implications for a research agenda. The new configuration is created through an analysis of place-related identities in narrative theory, texts and literacy processes. The emerging research agenda focuses on the ways children perceive and represent their place-related identities through reading and writing as inspired by and manifested in texts.

Learning through Collaborative Writing.

This article looks again at the dynamics of reading, writing and telling stories. It argues that working collaboratively can motivate writers in ways which encourage them to redraft their work purposefully and explicitly in pursuit of particular creative effects. It exemplifies ways in which knowledge about language at word, sentence and whole text level can effectively be brought to bear as part of a holistic approach to writing.

My Place: Exploring children's place-related identities through reading and writing

This paper considers how children perceive and represent their placed-related identities through reading and writing. It reports on the findings of an 18-month interdisciplinary project, based at Cambridge University Faculty of Education, which aimed to consider childrens place-related identities through their engagement with, and creation of, texts. This paper will discuss the project, its interdisciplinary theoretical framework, and the empirical research we conducted with two classes in primary schools in Eastern England. A key text used in our research was My Place by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins. Drawing on our interdisciplinary theoretical framework, particularly Doreen Masseys notion of place as a bundle of trajectories, and Louise Rosenblatts notion of the transaction between the reader and the text, this paper will examine pages from My Place, children talking about how this text connects with them, children talking about their sense of place, and maps and writing the children produced based on their place.

Place-related identity, texts, and transcultural meanings

The spatial turn has been marked by increasing interest in conceptions of space and place in diverse areas of research. However, the important links between place and identity have received less attention, particularly in educational research. This paper reports an 18-month research project that aimed to develop a theory of place-related identity through the textual transactions of reading and writing. The research was an in-depth qualitative study in two phases: the first phase involved the development of an interdisciplinary theory of place-related identity, which was ‘tested’ in a second empirical phase. Two contrasting primary school classes were the site for the research that included the development of a unit of work, inspired by the book My place, as a vehicle for exploring place-related identity. The data were interviews, classroom observations and outcomes from pupils’ work. The construct of transcultural meanings, established from the analytic categories of localising identity, othering identity and identity as belonging, was identified as a defining phenomenon of place-related identity. The conclusions offer reflections on the development of our initial theory as a result of the empirical work, and the implications for practice and future research.

Rivers of reading: Using critical incident collages to learn about adolescent readers and their readership

Abstract This article arises from a study of 12–13-year‐old habitual and committed readers. The research foregrounds the sociocultural and spatial dimensions of their reading, exploring how encounters with other readers and different reading practices contribute to their readership. Many reading researchers favour survey‐style methodology, whilst acknowledging the need to explore young people’s reading in greater depth. The design of this research therefore involves different research methods. The article focuses on one of these methods which requires readers to create critical incident collages of their reading histories. I argue that it generates valuable data for both researchers and teachers and encourages a more intricate view of the complexity of reading.

Creativity in education

Abstract Currently considerable interest is being shown in creativity by the government and bodies such as QCA and Ofsted. A ‘creativity agenda’ has emerged with important implications for teaching and learning in schools. Drawing on research literature, as well as work completed by Secondary PGCE English and Drama trainees, this paper aims to provoke discussion about how creativity in education is defined and the impact of more explicit understandings of creativity in classrooms.

The Future of English

Abstract This article begins with a brief résumé of three selected texts which have, in different ways, been influential in setting the agenda for thinking about the long-term future of English. Discussions held at the 1999 NATE conference in a ‘Future of English’ commission were a response to a challenge by Gunther Kress (1995) to try to say what English is for. The working definitions which were achieved are used as a basis for beginning to consider, rather more briefly and tentatively, how the content of English should be defined, what progression would look like in the proposed curriculum, how it should be assessed and what the implications would be for teachers. Finally, the article puts forward some suggestions for a strategy which would aim to ensure that the challenge for a radical review of the English curriculum is addressed in time for 2005.

Children as readers: what we learn from their conversations about reading

This article analyses a conversation about reading with three Year 8 students. Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning and elements of discourse analysis, it explores not only details of what the students read, but also how the process of the conversation itself shapes their perception of themselves as readers. Analysis of the data suggests that close attention to conversations such as these can affect our understanding of young readers and the reading practices in which they engage, in ways which may be valuable for classroom teachers of English.

Becoming Poetry Teachers: Studying Poems Through Choral Reading

AbstractThe poet, Seamus Heaney, argues that transformations for both teachers and students may be engendered through recognising the connections and distinctions between the language of poetry and the language of everyday life. This article explores some of the ways in which choral reading of poetry, using multiple voices like musical instruments, may change student teachers’ perceptions of poetry. Five small groups of Secondary English student teachers on an initial teacher education Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course constructed choral readings, each group working with a different poem. During the session, they wrote journal entries about how creating the readings and listening to other people led them to think differently about studying poetry with students in the classroom as future secondary English teachers. Several months later, a small voluntary group met to recollect the session and consider more critically the potential of choral reading as one possible approach to teaching poetry.Abstract The poet, Seamus Heaney, argues that transformations for both teachers and students may be engendered through recognising the connections and distinctions between the language of poetry and the language of everyday life. This article explores some of the ways in which choral reading of poetry, using multiple voices like musical instruments, may change student teachers’ perceptions of poetry. Five small groups of Secondary English student teachers on an initial teacher education Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course constructed choral readings, each group working with a different poem. During the session, they wrote journal entries about how creating the readings and listening to other people led them to think differently about studying poetry with students in the classroom as future secondary English teachers. Several months later, a small voluntary group met to recollect the session and consider more critically the potential of choral reading as one possible approach to teaching poetry.

Reading Within Families: Taking a Historical Perspective

This article draws on a study which was designed to extend understanding of habitual and committed adolescent readers. The study brought together four theoretical perspectives – the social, cultural, spatial and historical – as a way of re-imagining the field of reading. The historical perspective is the one foregrounded here, offering views of reading as a long-term, intergenerational process, in this instance constructed through setting adults’ comments about reading alongside those of their children or grandchildren. Analysis of data from two of the research methods employed in the study – semi-structured small-group interviews and interviews conducted by the students themselves with a parent or grandparent – suggests that there is a strong argument to be made for attending more closely to adolescent readers from a historical perspective, as well as from social, cultural and spatial perspectives, in order to understand better some of their subtle characteristics as they shift over time rather than as t...This article draws on a study which was designed to extend understanding of habitual and committed adolescent readers. The study brought together four theoretical perspectives – the social, cultural, spatial and historical – as a way of re-imagining the field of reading. The historical perspective is the one foregrounded here, offering views of reading as a long-term, intergenerational process, in this instance constructed through setting adults’ comments about reading alongside those of their children or grandchildren. Analysis of data from two of the research methods employed in the study – semi-structured small-group interviews and interviews conducted by the students themselves with a parent or grandparent – suggests that there is a strong argument to be made for attending more closely to adolescent readers from a historical perspective, as well as from social, cultural and spatial perspectives, in order to understand better some of their subtle characteristics as they shift over time rather than as they appear when viewed merely in the here-and-now.