Academic literacy is often portrayed in terms of students’ writing and relates to issues concerning genre knowledge (Russell et al., 2009). However, academic literacy can also include an understanding of the social organization, power relations, and technology associated with how knowledge is produced and disseminated in various academic genres and disciplines (see Andersen, 2006; Lea & Street, 2006). Academic literacy is important not only for higher education but also for many professionals who produce, mediate or use these genres, such as researchers, librarians, teachers, journalists, and publishers.

This contribution describes a post-graduate level course designed to aid students master the cultural tools (Wertsch, 1998; Säljö, 2005) of scholarly publishing by focusing on the social organization of publishing, on the technology used, and on writing in a social science journal article genre. The work methods were informed by a socio-cultural approach to learning, which emphasizes the importance of situating learning activities in the practices in which what is learnt will be used (e.g. Lave & Wenger, 1991).

The students were given the task of setting up a scholarly (student) journal and to write and peer review articles for publication in the journal. The contribution considers some of the challenges met in the course, such as getting the students to align the constraints of the assignment with the real-life simulation of a scholarly journal. Furthermore, some of the benefits of the course are discussed, for instance the possibility of designing education that students perceive as being academic and at the same time relevant to professional fields.

References:

Andersen, J. (2006). The public sphere and discursive activities: Information literacy as sociopolitical skills. Journal of Documentation, 62(2), 213-228.

Lea, M. R. & Street, B. V. (2006). The “Academic Literacies” model: Theory and applications. Theory into Practice, 45(4), 368-377.

Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Russell, D. R., Lea, M., Parker, J., Street, B. & Donahue, T. (2009). Exploring notions of genre in “academicliteracies” and “writing across the curriculum”: Approaches across countries and contexts. In: Bazerman, C., Bonini, A. & Figueiredo, D. (Eds.). Genre in a changing world: Perspectives on writing (pp. 395-423). Fort Collins, CO: The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press. Available at: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/genre/

Säljö, R. (2005). Lärande och kulturella redskap: Om lärprocesser och det kollektiva minnet [Learning andcultural tools: On learning processes and the collective memory]. Stockholm: Norstedts akademiska förlag.

Wertsch, J.V. (1998). Mind as action. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.