FYC Curriculum Idea 4: Writing Identify and Self-Efficacy

 Some ideas from Amanda Sander's dissertation draft (2025):

p 24: A third lens is Ivanič’s (1998) four aspects of a writer’s identity or selves that a researcher should consider: the autobiographical self, the discoursal self, the self as author and the possibilities for self-hood. The autobiographical self is the personal stories, experiences, and history that a writer tells themselves and will bring to their writing (Oliveira, 2016; Woo, 2023). The discoursal self focuses on how a reader sees the writer, “it is concerned with the writer’s ‘voice’ in the sense of the way they want to sound, rather than in the sense of the stance they are taking” (Ivanič, 1998, p. 25). Self as author focuses on the writer’s beliefs around a piece a writing, what the writer wants to express in their text, or how they position themselves in relation to the writing (Ivanič, 1998; Oliveira, 2016; Woo, 2023). Lastly, possibilities for self-hood focuses on the social aspects of writing and the potential selves developed within the different communities a writer participates in allowing for them to adopt or reject the identities they are both given and developed (Ivanič, 1998; Oliveira, 2016; Woo 2023). 

p. 19: Self-efficacy has a level of context, domain, and measurement specificity that must be considered when engaging in research around the theory (Bong, 2006), which includes a need to consider self-efficacy amongst different writing tasks, genres, and skills (Cordeiro et al., 2018; Grenner et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2014). Bandura (1997) pointed out that researchers cannot simply measure perceived competence at a grade level but rather they need to look at self-efficacy at the level of domain and task. 

p. 20: Bruning et al. (2013) put forth a theory that there are three primary strands of writing self-efficacy: writing ideation, writing conventions, and writing self-regulation. Writing ideation focuses on students’ belief in their capability to develop ideas to enhance their writing (Bruning et al., 2013). Writing conventions looks at both conventions and mechanics, including everything from phonemic awareness to complex sentence development depending on the task or skill level (Bruning et al., 2013). The final strand suggested in their study was writing self-regulation which is “reflected in writers’ confidence they can direct themselves successfully through writing’s many dimensions and subtasks” (Bruning et al., 2013, p. 29). 

p. 30: Writers-Within-Community: The theory proposes that the communities or contexts in which students engage in writing and learning shape the students’ writing development alongside their “cognitive capabilities, resources, beliefs, and affective reactions” (Busse et al., 2023, p. 2). WWC posits that these communities shape their decisions and writing artifacts (Busse et al., 2023; Graham, 2018). Graham (2018) argues that most writing models ignore cultural, social, and political influences on writing and writing development. The model consists of two parts: writing communities and writers and their collaborators.

For consideration: The goal is not to create a single successful curriculum but to design a framework in which each instructor can craft an experience that builds effectively from their own "collective history within the group impacts the writing community and social, political, and historical forces outside the group that impact its members" (see Sanders disseratation, ~p. 31)