Journal article
Essay: Revisiting Rationales for Conceptualizing (and Teaching) the Teacher-Writer
English education, Vol.58(3), pp.198-220
04/01/2026
DOI: 10.58680/ee2026583198
Abstract
In literacy teacher education, questions about what it means to be a teacher-writer and why it matters have been enduring ones. In this article, we propose that while current rationales for teachers-as-writers are valuable, they may also contribute to wider dehumanizing discourses that privilege effectiveness, accountability, and future-oriented outcomes. Contributing to these discourses, even unwillingly, undermines our ethical commitments to the agency of teachers and to creating spaces for joy and wide awakening. We first retrace the history of this phenomenon before arguing that it is time to add another “phase in the development of the teacher-writer” (Whitney et al., 2014), one that explicitly highlights the creative and humanizing dimensions of teachers writing. We then share some approaches we have been trying in our work as teachers and writers, and we invite others in the field to continue thinking alongside us about new possibilities for teacher-writers.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Essay: Revisiting Rationales for Conceptualizing (and Teaching) the Teacher-Writer
- Creators
- Anne Elrod WhitneyCharlotte L. LandJessica Cira Rubin
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- English education, Vol.58(3), pp.198-220
- DOI
- 10.58680/ee2026583198
- ISSN
- 0007-8204
- eISSN
- 1943-2216
- Publisher
- National Council of Teachers of English
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/01/2026
- Academic Unit
- Teaching and Learning
- Record Identifier
- 9985219923102771
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