Behind the textual: considerations of knowledge challenges in postgraduate students’ planning, researching and writing of theses

Abstract

Research into academic literacy demands on postgraduate students, particularly at thedoctoral level, has increased significantly in the last decade or so. Academic literacy isoften configured in relation to students needing to understand the conventions of thediscourse community and being able to respond to the challenges associated with thepractices, skills, and particularly the text forms associated with it. While this is of value inguiding pedagogical support and interventions, it must be complemented with anunderstanding of the students themselves: what they bring to the community and learningcontext in terms of prior knowledge and expertise, what they personally find challenging inknowledge terms, and how they respond to the challenges. This requires us to ’go behindthe textual’. A productive framework for this analysis is the work of Eraut (2000, 2003,2004, 2008), which encompasses a view of discourse community or group membership,considers challenges arising from transitions to different communities or situations, andfocuses on how knowledge demands shift and change. This paper presents data frominternational students representing knowledge transitions and challenges in mastersresearch study, as the students plan their research, write about (or ‘codify’) their planning,and write about it in the form of a thesis. As the data shows, challenges and successes inthese transitions impact on a student’s developing identity as a researcher, and also on thelikelihood of successful completion and aspirations to engage in further research.