ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we address perspectives, pedagogies, and policies that currently shape the development of adolescent and adult writers. In the case of adolescent writers, we review research that indicates how a biologically driven model of development has negated identities that are, or might be, the basis for writers’ engagement. In addition, we suggest how policy debates concerning adolescent literacy restrict the nature and function of writing in classrooms. In the case of adult writers’ development, we focus on writing in adult literacy education (ALE), examining the past and present development of low-literate writers. Although the developmental needs of adolescent and low-literate adult writers are distinct and although the research traditions that inform investigations of their writing do not entirely converge, we claim common features. For both, historically, pedagogical approaches have calibrated to curricula rather than to learner needs. For both, currently, federal educational and labor policy sanctions models of writing development increasingly challenged by sociocultural research.
