Over the summer I’d come across some useful journals, websites and a podcast on setting up writing workshops and guides on how to ‘teach’ writing. The podcast ‘Unconditional Teaching’ whereby a group of lecturers discuss topics related to higher education, teaching and studying had a particularly interesting episode where they had been discussing ways in which academic language can be unfamiliar to students, almost exclusionary particularly as it doesn’t take into account other languages and different ways of thinking (Zybura, 2020). Kieron Devlin (2016) perfectly describes the anguish students endure when facing the demands of academic writing and how it can
short-circuit their brains, paralysing them into poor confidence with writing
Kieron Devlin (2016)
The take aways of what I’d been reading so far seem to point to academic writing as a barrier, not allowing students to write with their own voice and to integrate their own experiences and ways of knowing into their essay writing. What research methods could I use that would illicit students that I teach into feeling comfortable about talking and discussing writing to confirm what I’d been reading and listening to. And how would talking about poor confidence in writing help them to feel more confident in their approach to academic writing.
I knew from the very outset I didn’t want to create and or use a survey as a way of collecting data from students on their attitudes, experiences and feelings about writing within their course. My own hatred of filling in surveys even if it meant winning a month’s worth of shopping from Waitrose definitely influenced by decision not to use this method. I felt trying to design a set of questions that a) wouldn’t take more than a few minutes and b) would allow students to feel comfortable in telling me about their attitudes, experiences and feelings towards writing without having to write too much, felt almost clinical and a sense of detachment between me and the student.
Thinking about the possible uncomfortable writing experiences some students may have experienced in the past, I was drawn to interviewing as a research method, because my assumption of it felt as though it would be an organic, honest and non-invasive way of talking about writing experiences and attitudes. Yet reading Mats Alvesson (2012) Views on Interviews: A Skeptical Review made me consider the ways in which interviews can be constructed to control and or manipulate the interviewee responses. My idea of the interview fostering a sense of closeness, empathy and expressed understating would create conditions for a good interview. One in which I would be able to access the truth, or in other words create an environment to control the responses I desired/wanted. Of course that wasn’t my aim, but it’s impossible to think of interviews as neutral, through the way the questions can be constructed, how they are asked and the environment it takes place in are all controlled. And how are the responses to be interpreted, how honest and or truthful are they.
After reading the article, my aim still remained to foster and create an environment where students would feel comfortable in talking to me about their writing experiences even though the interview method was very much out of my comfort zone in that I would be approaching and speaking to people I didn’t know, building trusting and friendly relationships. It would take time to plan and to organise and finally transcribe. Whereas the option of creating a survey seemed to counteract all of this …
My plan would be to set up interviews with student’s year 2 and 3, possibly alumni. I would also plan to interview Academic Support Staff and CTS tutors if they were available. The questions were designed to encourage a conversation, discussion in a non-formal way. I would also talk about my own attitudes and personal experiences to writing.
Interview schedule