CFP: Gender and Writing

[Francis Hult]

SIG WRITING: Invited Symposium EARLI 2009 (Amsterdam)

CALL FOR PAPERS.

 

 

Symposium Title:  Boys, Girls and Writing: What's the Difference?

 

Background:    Whilst there is international concern, particularly in western countries (Collins et al 2000; Evans 1999), about boys' achievements in literacy generally and in writing in particular, empirical research into gender differences in writing are less clear about whether such difference exists or the nature of that difference.  There are those, such as Millard (1997) who argue that boys' literacy is not deficient or inferior to that of girls, but different: boys are 'differently literate'.   Elsewhere the discourse of difference is contested (Jones and Myhill 2007; Daly 2002): scripts which shape the enactment of gender identity are predominantly constructed by hegemonic social conventions and ideologies and hegemonic conventions operate in writing too, with commentators (for example, Wyatt Smith and Murphy  2001) observing that 'schooled literacies' are often divorced from the social realities of sub-groups of students, and that written genres are normalizing and !
 conformist).  Teachers are part of these processes of normalization and Petersen and Kennedy (2006) found that teachers assessed boys' writing more harshly than girls.

 


Aims:  It is the intention of this symposium to draw together international perspectives on gender and writing from a variety of research traditions in order to explore the effects of gender and writing and to elicit appropriate directions for further research in this area.  We would welcome, therefore, studies which address gender and writing, such as for example, motivation in writing, differently literate performance in writing, linguistic competence in writing, teacher influences on gender and writing, and student conceptualisations of writing or the writing process.


 

Submission details:  we require both an abstract and an extended summary as outlined below:

1.	A 100-300 word abstract 
2.	An extended summary of 600-1,000 words, detailing the aims, methodology/research design, findings, and theoretical and educational significance of the research. 

 

Please email us your abstract and extended summary to us by 10th October 2008.  We will then consider the proposals and submit the symposium proposal to the conference by the final submission dare of 31 October 2008.

 

Contact details:

Debra Myhill and Susan Jones

University of Exeter

Heavitree Road

Exeter England

EX1 2LU

d.a.myhill at ex.ac.uk

susan.m.jones at ex.ac.uk

 

About the EARLI conference:

http://www.earli2009.org <http://www.earli2009.org/> 

 

References:

Collins, C. Kenway, J. & Mcleod, J. (2000) Factors influencing the educational performance of males and females in school and their initial destinations after leaving school   Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Canberra, AGPS

Daly, C. (2002). Literature search on improving boys' writing. London: Ofsted.


Evans, Hyacinth 1999  Gender and Achievement in Secondary Education in Jamaica   Planning Institute of Jamaica Policy Development Unit   Kingston Jamaica


Millard, E.  (1997) Differently Literate: Boys, girls and the schooling of literacy.  London: Falmer

Peterson S and Kennedy K (2006) Sixth grade teachers' written comments on student writing: Genre and Gender Influences. Written Communication  23 (1) 36- 62

Wyatt-Smith, Claire and Murphy, Judy 2001 What English counts as Writing Assessment?  English in Education 35 (1).

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