Writing Together, Writing Differently: Collective Authorship as Reflective Practice

Authors

• Thanh Thao Le, Can Tho University, VietnamFollow
• Trut Thuy Pham, Nam Can Tho University, VietnamFollow

Abstract

This article examines collective authorship as a reflective and ethical research practice within a sustained program of co-authored qualitative, post-qualitative, linguistic, and reflective inquiries into teacher reflection, professional learning, language, silence, and recognition. It offers an oral-history-informed reflective methodological account of a writing collective and asks how collective authorship became a methodological practice through our collaborative writing process. The primary materials were shared drafts, margin comments, revisions, silences, version histories, short reflective notes, and remembered writing encounters. Teacher-reflection texts and related professional writing materials from our broader research program formed the secondary materials around which the writing process unfolded. Analytically, we traced recurring writing episodes that made authorship, responsibility, relation, and silence visible. Four methodological gestures emerged: (a) naming the “we” of collective authorship by asking who was authorized to speak in the shared text, (b) revising as care for co-authors, participants, materials, and readers, (c) warranting openness by explaining why some claims, endings, or interpretations needed to remain unresolved, and (d) returning to silence by revisiting pauses, non-responses, and untouched passages as meaningful traces in the collaborative writing process. The article contributes to qualitative research by showing how collective writing can be examined from within, documented through a writing archive, and translated into practical guidance for future collaborative writing. It argues that collective authorship is not only a matter of credit or contribution, but also a situated practice of voice, responsibility, ethical restraint, and methodological accountability.

Keywords

authorship, collective writing, post-qualitative inquiry, reflective methodological history, reflective practice

Author Bio(s)

Thanh Thao Le (Corresponding Author; OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8471-8305) is persuading his Ph.D. studies at KU Leuven, Belgium. He is responsible for teaching language skills at his home institution - Can Tho University, Vietnam. He is very interested in classroom-based research and educational change-related issues. Please direct correspondence to [email protected]

Trut Thuy Pham (OrcID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6596-2686) is a lecturer at Nam Can Tho University, where she primarily teaches courses on language skills, translation, and interpretation. Her research interests focus on teacher professional development. Please direct correspondence to [email protected]

Publication Date

8-31-2026

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Recommended APA Citation

Thao, L. T., & Thuy, P. T. (2026). Writing together, writing differently: Collective authorship as reflective practice. The Qualitative Report, 31(8), 6447-6463.