Text(uring) the Fabric of Teachers’ Beliefs: The theoretical orientations, instructional practices, and influences of New Zealand year 7 and 8 teachers of writing

Abstract

Teachers' beliefs have been shown to be highly influential upon their decisions regarding instructional practices. Despite the important role beliefs have in shaping instruction, limited research explores the teacher belief-practice relationship in New Zealand (NZ) writing classrooms. This study aimed to examine the relationship between NZ year 7 and 8 writing teachers' beliefs and instructional practices, two years of schooling where underachievement persists. The explanatory sequential mixed-methods design had two successive phases. The first phase used an online questionnaire (N = 204) to identify beliefs about writing, namely, teacher-participants' attitudes, self-efficacy towards teaching writing, and theoretical orientation, and their use of evidence-based writing practices. During the second phase, in-depth case-study data (N = 4) were used to interrogate the findings from the questionnaire and establish an understanding of the influences on teachers' beliefs. From the questionnaire data, teachers reported positive attitudes and self-efficacy towards teaching writing although most feelings of preparedness came from in-service training or their own personal preparation rather than University courses. Factor analysis determined that teachers predominately orient their practice towards hybrid teaching, which combines explicit instruction with student-centred approaches. Two other orientations were identified: explicit instruction and correct writing. Both teachers' theoretical orientation and attitude towards writing made unique contributions to predicting teachers' use of evidence-based practices. Correlation analysis highlighted a relationship between the hybrid teaching orientation and most evidence-based writing practices. All case-study teachers, according to the questionnaire, aligned their writing instruction towards hybrid teaching; however, the manifestation of this was unique in each classroom as teachers drew from different sources of influence, other related beliefs influenced the selection of instructional practices, and differing conceptualisations of their role as a writing teacher. The findings suggest that NZ year 7 and 8 writing teachers' beliefs influence their instructional decisions. Teachers draw from a variety of sources and writing discourses, creating an eclectic approach to writing instruction. Additionally, for the case-study teachers, some beliefs and practices were absent, primarily around viewing writing as a social practice with the potential to create social change. It is hypothesised that teachers' beliefs will become more explicit and their instructional choices more deliberate if they become aware of the influence their beliefs have on their instructional practices and have a broader understanding of writing discourses.