Qualitative practitioner research undertaken by teachers in schools is a vital means of developing pedagogy and practice, one that is under-valued in today's educational climate. This essay explores representations of students in qualitative studies, which, I argue, necessarily transform student participants into 'characters' within the…

This essay explores an English lesson I taught to a Year 9 class in which students drew upon and narrativised personal experiences. I describe and examine the literary sociability of the lesson, by which I mean the social and cultural exchanges that give shape to students' reading and writing. In doing so, I demonstrate the need for policymakers…

This is a different essay from the one I set out to write. When I began, I had in mind a picture of my development as a teacher that was linear. I saw myself as a committed and enthusiastic teacher whose understanding about the nature of learning had developed over time. I had a theory that as a young teacher I was focused on content, on the idea…

This essay explores what the development of writing might look like and how it might take shape in a secondary English classroom. The study problematises current definitions of progress. In direct opposition to standards-driven models, I propose an alternative way of thinking about the development of writers through a series of narrative accounts…