Back to basics? Discourses of writing in Facebook groups for teachers

Abstract

This study investigates what discourses dominate teachers’ beliefs about writing education and how these discourses are negotiated among teachers in social media. The empirical material is based on a stratified random sample of interactions, so-called threads, between teachers in three large open Facebook groups for teachers of Swedish (2,500–10,000 members). Taking Ivanic’s 7 discourses of writing and learning to write as a framework, the study analyses discourses about writing visible in the interactions as well as blogs linked to, and school books and apps recommended. The two last steps are data-driven, emanating from previous steps. The result shows that 40% of the interactions concern writing. These interactions are dominated by a skills discourse. Further, a genre discourse challenges a former prominent discourse, the process discourse. Also, discourses in a social context are rare. The results indicate a narrow view of writing education in policy and practice, which, due to Ivanic (2004), can be interpreted as a consequence of a wider societal context where the educational system is questioned and explicit standards for writing are foregrounded. What conditions that would facilitate a wider range of discourses of writing in a school under pressure merits further investigations.