Whats in a name Holding on to academic literacies as epistemology and ideology for research and prac

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Whats in a name? Holding on to academic
literacies as epistemology and ideology (for
research and practice)

• Mary Scott, Institute of Education
• Theresa Lillis, The Open University

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Aims of our session

• General aim
• To open up discussion about what we mean by Ac
  Lits, and how it connects with different
  aspects of our practice including teaching
  (through presentation and discussion)
• Specific aims
• To present specific position on Ac Lits (UK) as
  epistemology and ideology
• To argue for the value of Ac Lits as an
  epistemological/ideological lens and why we
  continue to need this
• To explore the relevance of Ac Lits to (some of)
  our different kinds of practice (or
  interventions)- policy pedagogy
  course/programme design.

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Ac Lits UK locating this research field
Dissatisfaction with available academic thinking
on problem and solution to academic writing
(e.g.mainstream EAP)
Strong pedagogic motivation of researchers

• Institutional/policy context widening
  participation

Small number of researchers informally organised,
located in different positions within institution
Writing context within disciplines (no writing
curriculum space)
Academic disciplinary baseseducation, new
literacy studies, critical discourse analysis,
EAP/applied linguistics i.e. not literature
Deficit framing of students language/writing
within public media
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So- Whats in a name? Academic literacy Or
Academic literacies?

• These are used to mean different things, the same
  thingso singular/plural form not clear guide on
  what is meant
• Our view-
• Plural form signals a particular perspective on
  reading and writing (social practices, Lea and
  Street). - NOT an inventory/audit of types of
  writing
• Singular form sometimes used with this social
  practice perspective.

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Characterising Ac Lits-research

• Epistemology- shorthand for perspective on
  academic writing as social practice
• Methodology- ethnography/ic methods/sensitivities
  
• Ideology- transformative - challenging public
  deficit discourse and textualist/linguistic bias
  in approaches to academic writing.
• Research has challenged common sense notions
  about what academic writing is/why it is and
  thrown spotlight on practices in which writing
  (in particular) is embedded and helps to
  constitute- identity, power, the nature of
  dominant conventions, what may be at stake and
  for whom

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Transformative ideology

• Normative
• identify and inductfocus on text/ existing
  dominant conventions

Transformative situate and contest focus on
practice/resources for meaning making
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Central notions in Ac Lits diversity and dialogue

• experience, identity, desires
• language varieties and practices
• aesthetic values
• semiotic/technological affordances

• need to find out what these are
• need to build in opportunities for multi
  varieties, rhetorical practices and
  multilingualism
• need to open up values about beauty, elegance
• need to explore affordances of for meaning
  making/teaching and learning

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But we know all this- is it still relevant? Focus
on policy

• Activity 1 See handout with policy terms
• Question What is the view of writing, of the
  student, and of learning and teaching in this
  handout?

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Some thoughts on Activity 1

• The main focus is on making writing transparent
  and giving explicit guidelines
• The student A generic student
• Teaching Identify and induct
• Learning Practice makes perfect
• Institution Quality Assurance criteria
  success rates
• We need academic literacies as an intellectual
  space- as epistemology/ideology - to help us
  explore/articulate and challenge such
  impoverished thinking

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But we know all this- is it still relevant? Focus
on teaching

• Activity 2 Responding to student writing. See
  handout.
• Question How would you respond to this writing?

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Some thoughts on Activity 2

• A different approach to diversity from
  Activity 1.
• Theoretical tools from aclits
• ? Identity, ? Voice ? Complexities of
  culture
• Importance of challenging our practices

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Living the normative, transformative space

• Normativeidentify and inductfocus on text/
  existing dominant conventions

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Transformative situate and contest

• Normativeidentify and induct

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Transformative situate and contest

• Normativeidentify and induct

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Normative
Transformative
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Examples of some practice positions we find found
ourselves inWhere/how do we draw on Ac. Lits?

• Lecturer responsible for own teaching/assessment
  group in discipline area
• Running seminar series working with (discipline
  based) tutors on supporting students writing
• Asked to develop course for postgraduates across
  university on writing
• Asked to design programme to support non centre
  scholars submitting papers to academic journal
• Working with another discipline on improving
  students writing
• Working with a local authority on writing SW case
  notes

• Internal external examiner on discipline
  specific courses
• Mentoring colleagues and doctoral students
  towards academic publication.
• Discipline specialist supporting writers
• Consultant on policy documents on academic
  literacy
• Course designer of MA module on academic
  literacies
• Organiser of seminars for university teachers

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But we know all this- is it still relevant? Focus
on programme design

• Activity 3 See handout Question How would you
  draw on Ac lits in designing specific programmes?
  
• Either
• 1)You are asked to develop a programme to support
  post graduates from across the disciplines to
  develop their academic writing skills.
• Or
• 2) You are asked to improve the writing of case
  notes by practising social workers.
• Or
• 3) Discuss a programme you are currently involved
  in designing.

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Our toolkit from Ac Lits

• Draw on wide range of resources
• Linguistic/rhetorical tools to explore nature of
  the texts (sentence level grammars, discourse,
  genre, argument, stylistics) and to develop some
  shared metalanguage (which could include
  specialist and non specialist terms)
• Tools developed from ethnographic research in
  exploring and tracking the problem- Text
  Histories, whos involved, how, with what
  consequences
• Involve participants (lecturers, managers,
  students, teachers, reviewers) in exploring and
  naming the problem- bring the different
  conversations together.

• Starting positions.
• That the problem needs to be explored with the
  users
• That issues around identity, power, will be
  involved in some way
• That language as practice rather than as
  text(ual) forms is likely to be implicated, so
  need to look at whos involved in the text, when
  , where, how
• That part of the problem will be the status
  quo/dominant conventions/discourses (which will
  need to be challenged).

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Concluding thoughts..

• Ac Lits UK small research field developing
  specific epistemology/ methododology / ideology
• Ac lits as a (developing) lens is valuable in
  helping us engage with prevailing common sense
  views about language and literacy- in the context
  of globalisation issues around language and
  literacy are likely to get more rather than less
  complicated and we need to be able to articulate
  what the issues are
• Principles can be taken into our practice,
  importantly diversity and dialogue
• What we can do/where will depend to some (large)
  extent on where we are in the institution.

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THANK YOU ..for listening!

• This presentation draws on a paper we wrote on
  academic literacies and is part of ongoing
  discussions about what Ac Lits is, means and
  does (or doesnt do!)
• Lillis, T. and Scott, M. (2007) Defining
  academic literacies research issues of
  epistemology, ideology and strategy. Special
  issue-New Directions in Academic Literacies.
  Journal of Applied Linguistics. 4,1 5-32.
• If you would like a copy of the paper,
• contact either Mary M.Scott_at_ioe.ac.uk
• or Theresa, t.m.lillis_at_open.ac.uk