Demonstrating our value: Researching the impacts of embedded academic literacy
Presenters: Dr Mark Bassett and Dr Lucy Macnaught
Institution: Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Dr Mark Bassett is a Senior Lecturer and Learning Advisor at Auckland University of Technology. He teaches and researches academic literacy at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with a focus on embedding academic literacy development and online resource creation across multiple disciplines.
Dr Lucy Macnaught is a Senior Lecturer in the role of Learning Advisor at Auckland University of Technology. She collaborates with faculty to teach academic literacy within coursework and research programs. Her research interests include: embedded approaches to academic literacy development, integrating and designing AI, classroom discourse analysis, and multimodal metalanguage. Her book, Writing with Students, was shortlisted for the 2025 M.A.K. Halliday Book Prize.
Embedding has been a core strand of learning developer/advisor work for decades, and many of us simply take it for granted that it is an ideal approach to academic literacy teaching. However, experience tells us that our institutions do not see it that way, if indeed they see it – and us – at all. In this talk, we consider what we have done and what we can do, as a profession and a distinctive field of research, to persuade institutions that embedding is a core element of the curriculum. We start by reporting on findings from our systematic literature review (Bassett & Macnaught, 2024a) about evidence used to justify embedded approaches to academic literacy development. Findings show that research designs often involved questionnaire, interview, and focus group data to generate insights about student and staff perceptions. Other types of impact, such as possible changes in academic performance or gradual developments in student writing were reported on far less. Descriptions of pedagogic practices were brief and not always related to claims about impact, and publishing targeted a variety of disciplines. These findings highlight the need for research teams with discipline knowledge and literacy knowledge so that evidence about the impacts of embedded approaches on academic performance are included, as well as complementary publications that detail the pedagogic practices contributing to change in academic performance. A recent scoping review – specific to developing research writing in graduate entry nursing programs (Macnaught et al., 2026) – also complements these findings by highlighting a range of claims about impact. However, like the broader systematic review, pedagogic description was minimal, and teaching appeared to be isolated within one course rather than distributed across a program. Both these reviews invite further discussion of how we design research about embedded practices and whose attention we are trying to get from researching and reporting on the value and impact of our work. Put another way, a central issue is that we do not only want to have conversations with each other but reach senior leaders who can approve and advocate for more systematic ways of embedding (Bassett & Macnaught, 2024b). We also share the design of two current research projects that are responses to the recommendations in these reviews. The first project examines a first-year Bachelor of Business core course with a typical cohort of 700 students. Here, we will focus on access to multiple data types and creating logical connections between them that can generate triangulated and substantiated claims. Data types include marked assessment work, cohort grade distributions, LMS usage, conversation histories with a bespoke AI chatbot, interviews, and questionnaires. The second project stems from the aforementioned scoping review. It involves a Master’s of Nursing Science program with a typical cohort of approximately 30 students. Here, we will discuss the choice of Design Based Research (McKenney & Reeves, 2018) which, in our case, includes the use of surveys to inform multiple iterations of teaching. We will also discuss the collection and analysis of texts for investigating possible changes in student writing, including conversation histories with customised AI chatbots (Macnaught, 2026). To conclude, we share the notion of ‘publication suites’ for disseminating research and then invite the audience to contribute ideas about their research design choices and experiences.
References
Bassett, M., & Macnaught, L. (2024a). Embedded approaches to academic literacy development: A systematic review of empirical research about impact. Teaching in Higher Education 30(5). 1065–1083. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2024.2354280. Bassett, M., & Macnaught, L. (2024b). We’ve been saying embedded is good for ages, so why isn’t it happening more? Retrieved from https://aldinhe.ac.uk/ Macnaught, L. (2026). Customising chatbots for writing development: Anticipating semiotic mediation with the theoretical architecture of systemic functional linguistics. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 80, 101646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2026.101646 Macnaught, L., Winnington, R., & Macdiarmid, R. (2026). Preparing graduate entry nursing students to successfully complete research projects: A scoping review. ESP Today, 14(1), 89–114. https://doi.org/10.18485/esptoday.2026.14.1.5 McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. (2018). Conducting Educational Design Research (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315105642
Panel Discussion Members
Panel Chair: Ursula Canton, Glasgow Caledonian University
As a Learning Developer Ursula Canton works with STEM students, arts students and education students at different universities and under different titles (Senior Lecturer / Glasgow Caledonian University; Effective Learning Tutor /Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Associate Tutor / University of Glasgow). In all of these roles she draws on her experiences from her first academic life (MA Language and Literature; PhD in Theatre Studies) and current research interests in evaluating writing interventions, writing process(es) and academic and professional literacies. She is keen on contributing to the development of Learning Development through formal and informal routes, including taking a leading role in developing ALDinHE’s mentoring programme, co-chairing of ScotHELD (Scottish Higher Education Developers) and sharing her insights through informal chats and mentoring, as well as publications.
Our University of Leeds panel members are as follows:
Tom Campbell
I am Deputy Director (Education) at the Leeds Institute for Societal Futures and Assoicate Professor of Social Theory in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. My work spans social and political thought, disability studies, and the history of social theory, with particular interests in modernity, biopolitics, exclusion, and the history and political imagination of the disabled people’s movement.
My work is shaped especially by Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Zygmunt Bauman. Across my research, I examine how modern societies classify, govern and pathologise human difference, and how those orders are challenged through resistance, social movements and oppositional forms of thought. Disability, neurodiversity, and the history of impairment categories have been central sites through which I have pursued these questions, alongside a sustained interest in the intellectual and political traditions of the disabled people’s movement. My wider concern is with the organisation of social life in modernity and the changing relationship between power, difference and resistance.
I completed my undergraduate degree in Sociology, my MA in Social Research, and my doctoral research at the University of Leeds. From 2018 to 2023, I served as the School’s Director of Student Education in the School of Sociology and Social Policy.
Jenny Eyely
I completed my PhD in inorganic chemistry with Prof Martin Schröder at the University of Nottingham. After graduating, I moved to the University of Reading as an Outreach Officer, working on the Royal Society of Chemistry’s “Chemistry for All” project.
Whilst at Reading, I began to teach students alongside my outreach work. I was subsequently appointed as Teaching Fellow in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
I moved to Leeds in 2020 and was appointed as Lecturer for the Curriculum Redefined Project in 2022.
Natalie Kopytko
Natalie worked for environmental non-profits and in environmental education prior to returning to academia for a Master’s degree. For her thesis, she focused on how nuclear power creates barriers to climate change adaptation and how nuclear power operation must adapt to climate change. After the Fukushima accident, this research provided insights into the vulnerability of nuclear power to natural disasters beyond earthquakes. For her PhD, she focused on climate change adaptation and mitigation in Ukraine’s agri-food sector. Prior to joining SRI as a lecturer, Natalie held a post-doc researching small-holder farmer seed innovations in India in the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science at Leeds. Natalie remains interested in using an interdisciplinary approach to research the connections between climate change, agriculture, energy and water. However, her interests now include the use of play to engage with learning about complex environmental challenges. In terms of regional focus, Natalie is primarily interested in working in Ukraine.
Rachel Walls
I support University of Leeds mature or part-time undergraduates and Lifelong Learning Centre students with academic skills development, through workshops and one-to-one appointments. I have worked in four universities in various roles, teaching film, literature and cultural studies and supporting students and staff with careers, skills and professional development. My PhD, completed in 2011, explored stories and surveillance of an inner city neighbourhood in Vancouver, Canada.
My current research interests are in situated pedagogies, education for social justice and digital pedagogies. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology (CMALT) and a member of the UK Association for Advising and Tutoring (UKAT).
I recently presented at the NERUPI conference on adapting a module for online delivery and last year presented at the NACADA (The Global Community for Academic Advising) International conference on using positionality in work with students.
Angela Newton
My role as a Learning Advisor involves working with the Schools of Law and Sociology and Social Policy to embed academic literacies in the curriculum to support student learning. I contribute towards, and lead in-curriculum teaching with both large and small groups, and work alongside academic colleagues to create rich and rewarding learning experiences that build confidence and allow students to learn actively.
With a background in academic librarianship and english literature, I have a deep appreciation for the value of texts and critical thinking, as well as the importance of deep reading to successful study. Working with students in 1-2-1, lecture and workshop settings, I aim to engage students in activities that harness their ideas and practical strategies that they can implement in their studies.
Suzy Beck
I am an experienced qualified teacher with specialisms in disability and inclusion, language and literacy. I moved into higher education in 2018 having enjoyed a successful fourteen-year career in primary and secondary teaching, both as a class teacher and as a specialist literacy teacher and Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo). My first five years working in higher education were spent as a specialist study skills tutor for students with specific learning differences at Leeds Beckett University, during which time I was the regional coordinator for the Professional Association of Specific Learning Difference Specialists in Higher Education (PASSHE).
As a Learning Advisor at the University of Leeds, I work to develop and enhance the academic literacies of taught students through offering 1:1 consultations, facilitating workshops and developing online resources as part of the Learning Development Team’s co-curricular offer, Skills@Library. I also teach on modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the schools of Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy on a range of topics from searching for literature and academic writing, to planning and delivering presentations. As part of my work in Schools, I also attend and present at faculty and school-level education committees, help to facilitate welcome, induction and outreach events, and collaborate on pedagogical research with academic colleagues. Other recent projects include acting as subject matter expert in the development of a new online academic skills resource for mature students in collaboration with the Lifelong Learning Centre and developing content for a new online Data Science MSc.
In addition to my professional role, I have recently completed doctoral research in the area of disability and inclusion in higher education as part of the HEREE programme at Lancaster University. My research output to date has focused on the role of disability practitioners in developing inclusive teaching and learning, and on students’ experiences of processes associated with implementing reasonable adjustments. I sit on the Association for Learning Development’s (ALDinHE) EDI Working Group, contribute to their Neurodiversity/Inclusivity Community of Practice and have recently organised and co-hosted an ALDinHE Regional Event at Leeds on the theme of ‘2024 and Beyond: where are we taking learning development?’
Kasia Drozdziak
I am a qualified librarian and I am particularly interested in Information Literacy and how we can support students’ academic development through individual support. I am responsible for liaising with schools in the Faculty of Environment – Food Science and Nutrition, Earth and Environment, Geography and the Institute for Transport Studies. I provide embedded teaching within modules focused on academic skills such as finding and evaluating information, academic writing, critical thinking and time management. I attend and contribute to Faculty and School Taught Education committees as well as Student Staff Partnership Forum meetings where I can answer questions and act as a liaison between students and the Learning Development Team. I provide one to one academic skills appointments and teach on our workshop programme as part of our co-curricular offer. I am joint lead on one to one support and enquiries in our team and am interested in ensuring that these are as efficient and helpful to students as possible. I am also interested in how our team can support students working on a Dissertation/Research Project, in particular those working on non-traditional projects such as capstone projects.