Responding to the writing of children in a Health School: Developing an appreciative approach

Abstract

Responding to writing is a crucial component of writing pedagogy, with teachers frequently engaging in this as part of their daily teaching practice. However, extensive research indicates that teachers' feedback is often framed in terms of deficits, emphasising what is lacking in students' writing or what needs improvement. Students who are perceived to be at risk of failing or struggling to meet predetermined writing standards typically experience responses to their writing that focus on surface features and include marginal comments and empty praise. Underpinned by sociocultural, critical theories and qualitative research methods, this study investigated teachers' experiences in a New Zealand Health School as they inquired into an approach that mitigates the narrow and predominantly negative responses some students previously received.

This research followed five Health School teachers who inquired into and adopted appreciative pedagogical practices and focused on responding to their students’ writing through an asset-based lens. Through this lens, diversity is valued and encompassed as a resource. All students, irrespective of their health condition or other dimensions of diversity, are positioned as capable and knowledgeable writers. The Health School teachers collaboratively inquired into appreciatively informed strategies, implemented these while discussing shared samples of students' writing, and adopted the new strategies when they responding to the writing of their Health School students (aged 5-19).

Evidence was drawn from focus groups, learning inquiry group sessions, and individual interviews, and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that when teachers collaborate to reflect on the perspectives that inform education policies and practices, particularly those around standardised assessments, they become more aware of how these factors may lead them to inadvertently reproduce harmful responses. When teachers employed appreciative strength-based strategies, they became less focused on predetermined standards and surface-level features (e.g., spelling, grammar and punctuation), instead looking at how students integrated literacy knowledge they had learnt outside of school into their writing. Teachers became curious about students' writing and asked students more questions about their writing processes. As a result, participants’ response practices became more student-centred, allowing students to maintain authority over their writing.

Findings suggest that high-stakes assessments have a powerful effect on how teachers view themselves as teachers and their students as learners. However, talking appreciatively about students and their writing was infectious; when teachers collaboratively discussed student writing strengths, participants stopped looking for conformity in students’ writing and instead began considering differences in students’ writing as assets. This research contributes to the body of literature aimed at shifting discourses that position students in deficit ways towards more appreciative stances. Further, with limited past research looking into writing teachers' experiences during times of curricular and assessment change in New Zealand and practices of Health School teachers in general, this study provides a valuable contribution to the literature. Implications for teachers and educators are discussed.