Repositioning academic literacy: charting the emergence of a community of practice

Abstract

This paper reflects on the experiences of the authors in planning and teaching a short-course in academic literacy for students enrolled in the first year of an education degree. By conceptualising tertiary literacy as a social practice and drawing on a sociocultural approach to learning, the members of the project team were able to move beyond deficit views of individual students towards a consideration of their own teaching practices and how they could best help students expand their literate repertoires. This approach provided opportunities for the team to focus on pedagogical matters and to chart its own emergence as a community of practice working on a shared problem.