Becoming a teacher of writing: Living between and on the lines

This article discusses aspects of a larger study in progress concerning the professional development of formative-years (defined as years 2-7 of teaching) secondary schoolteachers of written composition. Although learning to teach well is a complex task in itself English language arts teachers face additional pressures due to the nature of the discipline as it is currently conceived. Aspects of the project pertain to the teachers' developing abilities to reconcile personal and professional tensions, as well as teachers' responses to the tensions of job insecurity and of reconciling pedagogical beliefs with pressures stemming from the provincial examination system.