Primary Writers’ Identity Negotiations through Positioning in Their Compositions and the Classroom

Building on scholarship that recognizes writing as a rich site of identity negotiation, this study introduces a sociolinguistic analytic frame based on Tannen’s multidimensional power/connection grid and multimodal and visual grammars to explore young writers’ identity work. By integrating Tannen’s framework with an identity and positioning lens, we show how children’s self-authoring reflects ongoing negotiations of status and connection, either affirming how they see themselves or challenging how others position them as writers. Using an interpretive case study of two first graders, we argue that writing identity work involves continuously maneuvering and negotiating levels of connection (closeness and distance) and status (hierarchy and equality) through literacy practices. Our findings reveal how these micro-level linguistic and multimodal negotiations unfold multidimensionally and shape identity and positioning, offering insights for educators to better support students’ writing identity development.