Coming to writing

Abstract

This paper reports on one strand of a research project conducted with prominent writers who are also English teachers from around Australia, It asks what were the conditions which led these writers to come to writing and what conditions have they created in their own work with high school students that establish and promote an enabling pedagogy for writing in their classes. It incorporates a consideration of questions of aesthetics and ethics in writing and English and concludes with some suggestions of writing pedagogies and understandings emerging from this research that might be taken up and incorporated into English classes in schools.