Partnerships for learning: extending knowledge and understanding of creative writing processes in the ITT year

Abstract

This article explores the idea that in order to improve the ways we teach children to write creatively it is worth exploring how we, as teachers and writers, do that ourselves. It describes some of the stages of a curriculum development project undertaken in the Portsmouth and Southampton Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) English teams, begun in 2004. The project was supported by funding from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and was designed to foster a range of learning activities for trainee teachers in the area of teaching creative writing to pupils in schools. The project that was developed had multiple aims: subject knowledge development in trainee English teachers; pedagogic exploration amongst all teachers involved looking at how the difficult area of teaching creative writing might be better addressed. This article evaluates the aims of the project and some of the outcomes and argues for recognition of the training year as a vital area for exploring issues in teaching, beyond competence. The article draws on a variety of sources, including participant observation notes made in writing workshops, responses to a questionnaire completed by project participants and excerpts from writing collected across the project produced by teachers and pupils.