Student Writing as 'Academic Literacies': Drawing on Bakhtin to Move from Critique to Design

Abstract

A body of research has recently emerged in the UK which adopts an 'academic literacies' stance towards student writing. An 'academic literacies' stance conceptualises student writing as a socially situated discourse practice which is ideologically inscribed (Jones et al., 1999; Lea & Street, 1998). Whilst powerful as an oppositional frame, that is as a critique of current conceptualisations and practices surrounding student writing, academic literacies has yet to be developed as a design frame (Kress, 1998, 2000) which can actively contribute to student writing pedagogy as both theory and practice. My aim in this paper is to work towards opening up a design space built on academic literacies critique. To do so, I draw on Bakhtin's work on dialogism (Bakhtin, 1981, 1984) and my research with a group of 'non-traditional' student-writers and their specific experiences of academic writing within a number of academic disciplines (Lillis, 2001). I map out the different levels of dialogism in Bakhtin's work and illustrate the way these are, and are not, enacted currently in student writing pedagogy. I conclude by calling for dialogue, rather than monologue or dialectic, to be at the centre of an academic literacies stance and briefly outline some design implications of a dialogic approach to student writing pedagogy.