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Article published In:
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 43:1 (2020) ► pp.52–78

“What we do and don’t do”

Defining team in the discourse of academic learning advisers’ post-consultation notes

ORCID logo | Australian National University

Academic language and learning advisers are employed by many Australasian universities to help students develop their academic literacies, that is, the knowledge and skills needed to be successful at university both within and beyond disciplinary contexts. At the Academic Skills and Learning Centre of the Australian National University, a team of Learning Advisers spend a third of their time consulting students individually, often about a piece of writing to be submitted for assessment. There is much concern in the literature about the pedagogical effectiveness of the one-to-one session, yet little that examines it and its discourses as sites of identity genesis. This study examines Advisers’ post-consultation notes, and through a community of practice approach to workplace discourse finds that discussion of “what we do and don’t do” is the nexus at which Advisers negotiate the discourses of their organization, define boundaries around their work, and develop their professional identities.

Keywords: community of practice, workplace discourse, academic language and learning, professional identity, higher education
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Study background
  • 3.Literature review
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Data collection and analysis
  • 5.Findings
    • 5.1Vocabulary frequency and categories
      • 5.1.1Lexical categories across the data set
    • 5.2The structure of a post-consultation note
      • 5.2.1Preliminaries
      • 5.2.2Problem description/diagnosis
      • 5.2.3Investigation of causes
      • 5.2.4Solution provided
      • 5.2.5Redirection
      • 5.2.6Referral
    • 5.3Other textual features
      • 5.3.1Student responses
      • 5.3.2Debrief
    • 5.4Focus group
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Influences on note structure
    • 6.2Demarcating professional boundaries in discourse
    • 6.3Professional identity and practice
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 January 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.18063.woo
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