(Re)Writing the Profession: Teacher Preparation as a Site of Resistance

Erica Holyoke University of Colorado Denver ; Susan Tily University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Abstract

This study examined preservice teachers’ (PTs’) multimodal and multigenre writing portfolios advocating for change in the teaching profession. Using theories of humanizing education and Janks’s framework of Big P and little p politics, this study analyzed how PTs used writing as professional resistance and a means to heal their own schooling harms and to envision a more inclusive future for students. The findings elevated how PTs engaged as writers to see teaching as a political engagement and transformative act within the educational climate of control, compliance, and conformity. Implications for the field included possibilities to expand professional agency and supporting future teachers in confronting the political and relational complexities of their work through authorship and sharing their voices and advocacy broadly.

Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Published
2026-02-01
DOI
10.58680/rte2026603344
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
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