This paper provides an opportunity for participants to build a professional community in which they critically consider theories, discourses, and experiences that influence them as writers and teachers of writing. The class layers theoretical, conceptual and practical elements of teaching writers in and beyond classroom contexts, and participants will be invited to make space for their own priorities and interests as teachers of writers. It is expected that successful students in this paper will develop deep understandings about the nature of writing and learning to write while inquiring into their own expressions of writing pedagogies that honour and support all writers.

The focus in this paper is on writing as composition, communication, and expression. As such, the writers we teach may include those who compose, communicate, and express themselves in many modalities for any reason. Throughout the paper, we will engage with discourses and theories that position all writers appreciatively, aiming for opportunities to support continuing growth.

There are several interweaving threads that support our learning in this paper, including the idea that In order to teach writers well, we must understand the complexity of writing in social, cultural, and personal histories. We also work from an understanding that the best teachers of writers are writers themselves, with clear connections to the processes and tensions of sustaining a writing practice. To support this, alongside our conceptual and academic learning, participants in the class participate in developing a writer’s notebook and moving through a cycle of writing from inception to class publication. While our class topics will be applicable to the teaching of writers across many ages and contexts, students in the class will be invited to direct certain class elements in the direction most meaningful to them, including the opportunity to pursue individually-selected inquiry topics.

This paper is taught fully online. It opens on Monday 27 February 2023.

Detailed weekly guidelines are provided through our class Moodle page. Each week has a topic focus, and weekly readings, lessons and presentations, videos, and other resources will be provided to support your ongoing learning and required regular participation in online discussion forums and other means of engagement.

As this is a 300-hour master’s level paper, students are expected to dedicate a considerable amount of time to their learning through independent study, both through engaging with the materials provided and also through their own interest-driven reading and research related to our paper topics.

Many aspects of the paper are asynchronous, meaning that students can choose to complete them at a time that is most convenient for them, but materials are posted weekly and there are expected deadlines each week for completion of activities like participation in forums, etc. At the start of the paper and at a few other checkpoints, students may choose to organise themselves into smaller groups/partnerships that meet synchronously for discussion and collaboration, and synchronous online whole-class meetings may be made available.