Writing Matters - child writers in the ecologies of childhood

TY - CONF

T1 - Writing Matters - child writers in the ecologies of childhood

AU - Heger, Stine

PY - 2023/8/14

Y1 - 2023/8/14

N2 - If children are cast for the future as “both vulnerable to environmental destruction and powerful agents of environmental change”, then children - regardless of the perspective - need the ability and the power to express their feelings, thoughts, opinions and wishes for the future. In my PhD project, I explore children as creative writers. In extensive ethnographic field work I study children who spend their free time writing in so-called “author schools for children” in Denmark. Here, the children write their own stories and poems, and professional authors teach them about writing, building plots and characters, playing with language, etc. I draw from rhetoric and writing research a fundamental understanding that being able to express yourself in writing is essential – not just for success in school and education but also beyond (Fleming, 2016; Cremin & Myhill, 2012). According to Deborah Brandt, “[W]riting has never attained the same formative and morally wholesome status as reading.” (Brandt, 2015 p. 89). Yet, writing is a powerful tool for children and young people to let their voices be heard (Wesseling, 2019). My focus is the children’s perspectives (Warming, 2019; Spyrou, 2018) on participating in the Danish author schools: what it means for them to write and be writers. I will share from my observations and conversations with these children and the significance of community, agency and imagination that they express. I will also address the importance of writing as craft in the ecology of childhood - across the domains of school and leisure activities.

AB - If children are cast for the future as “both vulnerable to environmental destruction and powerful agents of environmental change”, then children - regardless of the perspective - need the ability and the power to express their feelings, thoughts, opinions and wishes for the future. In my PhD project, I explore children as creative writers. In extensive ethnographic field work I study children who spend their free time writing in so-called “author schools for children” in Denmark. Here, the children write their own stories and poems, and professional authors teach them about writing, building plots and characters, playing with language, etc. I draw from rhetoric and writing research a fundamental understanding that being able to express yourself in writing is essential – not just for success in school and education but also beyond (Fleming, 2016; Cremin & Myhill, 2012). According to Deborah Brandt, “[W]riting has never attained the same formative and morally wholesome status as reading.” (Brandt, 2015 p. 89). Yet, writing is a powerful tool for children and young people to let their voices be heard (Wesseling, 2019). My focus is the children’s perspectives (Warming, 2019; Spyrou, 2018) on participating in the Danish author schools: what it means for them to write and be writers. I will share from my observations and conversations with these children and the significance of community, agency and imagination that they express. I will also address the importance of writing as craft in the ecology of childhood - across the domains of school and leisure activities.

KW - skrivelyst

KW - forfatterskoler for børn

KW - agency

KW - skole-fritid

KW - fiktionsskrivning

KW - children’s fiction writing

KW - Author schools for children

KW - agency

KW - ethnography

KW - writing along

M3 - Paper

T2 - 26th Biennal IRSCL Congress

Y2 - 12 August 2023 through 17 August 2023

ER -