ABSTRACT
The late Mike Hayhoe, who lectured at University of East Anglia (UEA), used to relate how, at a reading in King's Lynn, the poet Stephen Spender took out a pencil, mid-poem, and revised a line that writing requires courage. People have learned in the course of writing that they are at a point where the teachers really can take ownership of the teaching of writing. Teachers who write have a rich, complex, nuanced understanding of writing and that children who work with them love writing. Teachers writing groups are good for individuals and good for an emerging pedagogy of writing. Teachers writing groups foster authoritative practitioners who are willing to work alongside others to develop practice. Teachers who write for themselves and with others have the capacity to reveal to those they teach what it is to belong to a community of writers. If learning is a matter of identity, then identity itself is an educational resource.
