Framing the curriculum for participation: a Bernsteinian perspective on academic literacies

Abstract

Academic writing is challenging, particularly for new undergraduates who can struggle to know what is expected of them. Research into Academic Literacies often presents academic literacy practices as a barrier to the academy, excluding those not familiar with and those not able to participate in those practices and positioning them permanently on the periphery of the academic community. In seeking to explore how curricula should be designed to counter exclusion, this paper brings three theoretical frameworks together: Academic Literacies; Communities of Practice; and Bernstein's conceptualisation of the classification and framing of knowledge. Together, they provide a multi-layered understanding of how students are positioned by academic literacy practices: Academic Literacies illuminates the ‘problem’; Communities of Practice provides an analytical perspective on the process of exclusion; and Bernstein's work offers pedagogical insights into how academic literacy practices can be reimagined as a bridge, rather than as a barrier, to the academic community.

Keywords:

• academic literacies
• communities of practice
• classification
• framing
• participation

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the students who allowed me to listen to their conversations and to Monica McLean for her helpful comments on previous drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.