Set in the context of a Post-92 university college Education Studies department, this thesis investigates how new undergraduates might be supported in the transition to Higher Education. It describes an intervention informed by research into Academic Literacies that was undertaken in a first year, first semester module. The intervention aimed to scaffold participation in academic practice, and in particular academic literacy practice, in collaborative workshops within the context of the module content. The methodological approach combines action research with aspects of ethnography to produce ‘ethnographic action research’. Drawing on the work of Lave & Wenger, students working in groups are conceptualised as academic student communities of practice, and audio recordings of students engaged in collaborative activities provide evidence of their lived experience of the module in three domains: what they do; what they know; and how they position themselves in relation to academic practice. The findings show how talk about practice, within the context of participation in practice, is instrumental to change in all three domains: the negotiation of distinctly ‘academic’ ways of working in groups; the construction of meaning in the relationship between what is known about academic practice and what is done; and, the construction of the self as academic. I conclude that Higher Education pedagogical arrangements need to build communities that talk about practice and consider how such an approach responds to future challenges.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:580192 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Tapp, Jane |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13007/ |
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