The discourse of collaborative creative writing: Peer collaboration as a context for mutual inspiration

(2008). The discourse of collaborative creative writing: Peer collaboration as a context for mutual inspiration. Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. Drawing on socio-cultural theory, this paper focuses on children's classroom-based collaborative creative writing. The central aim of the reported research was to contribute to our understanding of young children's creativity, and describe ways in which peer collaboration can resource, stimulate and enhance classroom-based creative writing activities. The study drew on longitudinal observations of ongoing activities in Year 3 and Year 4 classrooms (children aged 7-9) in England. Selected pairs' collaborative creative writing activities were observed and recorded using video and audio equipment in the literacy classroom and in the ICT suite (13 pairs, about 2-4 occasions each). The research built on the contextualised, qualitative analysis of the social and cognitive processes connected to shared creative text composition. Using an analytic tool developed specifically for creative writing tasks, we linked collaborative and discursive features to cognitive processes associated with writing ('engagement' and 'reflection'). The research has identified discourse patterns and collaborative strategies which facilitate 'sharedness' and thus support joint creative writing activities. The paper discusses two significant aspects of the observed paired creative writing discourse. It reports the significance of emotions throughout the shared creative writing episodes, including joint reviewing. Also, it shows children's reliance on collaborative floor (Coates, 1996), with discourse building on interruptions and overlaps. We argue that such use of collaborative floor was indicative of joint focus and intense sharing, thus facilitating mutual inspiration in the content generation phases of the children's writing activities. These findings have implications for both educational research and practice, contributing to our understanding of how peer interaction can be used to resource school-based creative activities. Introduction Collaborative creative writing The centrality of creativity in human life has manifested itself throughout history in all cultures and civilisations. However, recent decades have seen an increased awareness of the societal need for cultivating creative and imaginative thought, leading to what Craft (2005) refers to as a 'revolution of creativity in education'. This increased awareness reflects societal changes in Western cultures; a shift from the 'industrial' to the 'knowledge' economy that, as many would argue, is " powered by human creativity " (Florida, 2002, …