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Center for Basic Research Education

Writer Identity and Writing Development in grades 6-7: An explorative study of student writing in Danish as a school subject

Period

2024-2027

Support

The project is supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark

Aim

The project aims to investigate the relations between students’ writer identity and writing development in the L1 subject in Danish compulsory schools, specifically in 6th and 7th grade. Its goal is to develop a model for writing identity and writing development. 

The research design is student-centered and conducted as an ethnographic, multiple-case study carried out at three public schools that are geographically spread out but average regarding students' socio-economic background and academic level. 

Informed by sociocultural and socio-semiotic understandings of writing, the project focuses on classroom teaching, writing assignments, feedback activities, and writing outside school.

The project addresses the following two questions: 

  • How does students’ writer identity relate to students’ writing development in the teaching of Danish in grades 6 and 7?
  • How can we theorize and model the relation between writer identity and writing development within L1 school writing?

The project will seek to answer these questions and more through several data collection methods. Primary data are student texts and video observations supplemented with talk-around-text interviews and screen logging. Empirical studies will allow us to remodel the relation between writer identity and writing development supporting teachers’ writing instruction in L1 for the benefit of all students.

Contact

Principle Investigators:

  • PI, Nikolaj Elf, professor, Department of Design, Media and Educational Science, University of Southern Denmark
  • Co-PI, Vibeke Christensen, associate professor, Department of Design, Media and Educational Science, University of Southern Denmark

Participants

Activities 

  • Webinar about the project (spring)

Publications

Elf, N., & Troelsen, S. (2021). Between joyride and high-stakes examination: Writing development in Denmark. In J. V. Jeffery & J. M. Parr (Eds.), International Perspectives on Writing Curricula and Development: A Cross-Case Comparison (pp. 169-191). Routledge. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003051404-9

Collaborative partners

  • VIA University College (Project partner)
  • University College Copenhagen (Project partner)

Last Updated 29.01.2025