Academic Literacies

White and Dhillon take a critical stance on the application of academic literacies to learning development, emphasising a noted tension in discussions of academic literacies about its practical applicability to learning development. Their approach discusses the theoretical underpinning of social constructivism in academic literacies as conflicting with the individual, student-centred orientation of learning development. They posit the need to extend beyond academic literacies as a key theoretical approach for learning development.

This is an accessible and clear summary of what academic literacies is, alongside some examples of learning development teaching/learning activities in practice.

This is a very clear and readable comparison of two important conceptual approaches that explains each of them (so can be read as an introduction as well). The paper subsequently compares and evaluates strengths and weaknesses.

This is one of the earlier core texts by Lillis. The book presents Lillis’ empirical research that led to the formulation of 4 typical dialogues she had with students. Her approach reflects many of the tenets Lea and Street established in their 1998 paper, although it does not use the label ‘academic literacies’ yet. As a whole book that reports on a longer study, it is not a quick read yet the dialogues are a very tangible way of framing actual work with students, in Lillis’s work on a 1-1 basis, which can be transferred to group work to some degree. Hence, even just reading those chapters can provide some inspiration for practical teaching.

This article provides a review of the impact of embedded academic literacies teaching. The paper is interesting for those who are thinking about documenting the impact of their academic literacies-based work, rather than an introduction or guideline to developing teaching based on academic literacies.

The paper argues for an expansion of academic literacies to academic and professional literacies. Reflecting on teaching interventions in a post-92 university, it interrogates the aims of an academic literacies approach in relation to students who are, in their great majority, not interested in becoming members of any academic community. Instead it suggests that expanding the concept to academic and professional literacies, relevance to students can be increased while maintaining a holistic understanding of literacies.

This paper from South Africa is an early pioneer of two arguments drawn heavily upon since by the LD field. Firstly, that academic literacies are by nature discipline-specific. Secondly, that collaborations involving the distinct skillsets of LD practitioners and discipline-based academics create a whole bigger than the sum of its parts. Members of both groups recognise the benefits of such collaborations, especially around rendering the tacit (to disciplinary insiders) knowledge and language of disciplines explicit for students. The paper is among those that paved the way for embedding and integration of LD into subject study as we now know it.