Between a rock and a hard place: exploring the views and accounts of undergraduate student writers in a consumer-led Higher Education system

Aiken, Verity Jane

Abstract

This thesis problematizes the student-as-consumer mantra from the perspective of students’ academic writing. It is beginning to be argued that a consumer-led higher education sector reducing the value of a degree to employability credentials leaves little space for considering variant and diverse approaches to higher educational learning. The premise of this thesis is that this applies to the business of student writing, in ways that are under-discussed.
Academic literacies theory argues that changes in Higher Education shapes significantly writing and assessment practices in ways that can be applied to consider student writing in a consumer-led and high-fee Higher Education system. This thesis uses Academic Literacies theory along with Thesen’s notion of ‘the tilting point’ in relation to ‘voice’ to explore how far and in what ways students’ understanding of their writing is perceived as a matter of developing disciplinary understanding and identity or amassing capital in the form of a qualification, and how students attempt to reconcile these divergent narratives.
The thesis explores these issues through a small-scale qualitative study at a pre-1992 university, drawing on 20 semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students. It applies Thematic Network Data Analysis to reveal ways in which this process is felt as a site of both compliance and resistance, containing both certainties and trepidations. Through this analysis, the thesis also reveals ways that risk and power are intricately involved in the way these students attempt to navigate writing.

Citation

Aiken, V. J. (2019). Between a rock and a hard place: exploring the views and accounts of undergraduate student writers in a consumer-led Higher Education system. (Thesis). Keele University. Retrieved from https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/414220

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Publicly Available Date: May 26, 2023
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/414220
• Additional Information: Embargo on electronic copy access until 1 June 2022 - The thesis is due for publication, or the author is actively seeking to publish this material.
• Award Date: 2019-06