‘I actually listened, I'm proud of myself.’ The effects of a participatory pedagogy on students' constructions of academic identities

Abstract

Academic literacy practices can be alienating for new undergraduates, yet academic success depends on writing in ways that the academy deems acceptable and is related to the identity positions available to students. I describe an intervention in which aspects of academic practice were made visible and students participated collaboratively in academic writing in a first-year, first-semester, Education Studies module. Student-managed audio recordings show that, in contrast to much research evidence, students did not reject academic identities but rather used their talk to ‘tell themselves’ as academic. I discuss methodological and pedagogical implications arising from the findings and conclude that collaborative participation in academic practice and the associated talk require students to position themselves as participants in that practice and may be a way to reduce alienation and enable students to construct the self as ‘academic’.

Keywords:

• identity
• academic literacies
• participatory pedagogy
• talk
• student transition

Acknowledgements

My thanks to the students who so generously allowed me to listen in to their conversations and to Monica McLean for her discussions and advice with earlier drafts of this work.

Notes

1. Educational Maintenance Allowance: a means tested benefit (maximum £30 per week) payable to students aged 16–19 in non-compulsory post-16 education in the UK. Discontinued in 2011.