Academic Literacies in disciplinary domains: Opportunities and implications for higher education

Presenter

Abstract

In higher education academic literacies are commonly understood as a list of skills (related to writing and reading and often studying) that can be taught separately in decontextualised ways and then transferred unproblematically to disciplines of study. This understanding has given rise to the practice of teaching these atomised skills through add-on, autonomous modules/subjects/courses, which are often marginal to the mainstream curriculum. This presentation will offer alternative understandings of academic literacies, drawing on research emanating from the UK, which argues for a shift from normative to transformative approaches to the development of academic literacies. Drawing on my own research I will argue for an approach that seeks to embed academic literacies within disciplines of study, rather than teach add-on, skills-based courses that are separate from mainstream study. This approach requires academic literacies professionals and disciplinary specialists to cross their disciplinary boundaries and work collaboratively. Finally I will turn to the question of knowledge and its place in debates about how to develop academic literacies. If we agree that our students are confronted by different kinds of knowledge as they progress through their university studies, and that these different knowledge forms have different ‘rules of the game’ as it were, then we might understand academic literacies work as helping our students navigate these different disciplinary and knowledge domains.

Presentation