Abstract
Through a narrative-based case study design, this research connects pre-service teachers’ early writing memories with their studies in writing instruction to explore how multi-layered and multi-faceted writing experiences across time and space influence teaching beliefs and practices. This article invites audiences to vicariously experience these pedagogical encounters, reflect on journeys to becoming writing teachers, and shed light onto the implications of teaching early writing. Comic artifacts and interview data were collected from nine pre-service teachers who learned to teach early writing/language arts in a four-year public university in the Inland Northwest. Based on the participants’ comics and narratives, four themes were identified, including becoming positive encounters, mentors, and role models; valuing writing as a social practice; encouraging writers’ agency and choices; and creating a safe and inclusive writing environment. Their shared stories and reflections inspire construction, deconstruction, and transformative reproduction of values in teaching and new potential in the performance of becoming future writing teachers.