Mastering Education: A Preliminary Analysis of Academic Literacy Practices within Masters-Level Courses in

This paper reports on the preliminary stage of a research project examining the kinds of writing that teachers are required to produce as part of their study when undertaking masters-level courses in education. The paper states that of particular interest is the way in which the particular writing these writing teachers do for these courses articulates with their professional experience, expertise, and aspirations. It explains that the research project so far has used the MA in Education program at the Open University as the main case study, analyzing course materials, interviewing MA students and tutors, and analyzing students ' written assignments and the feedback they receive from their tutors. The paper states that for comparative purposes, a smaller study was conducted of the MA in Education at,the University of Sussex, and a similar study of the MA in Education at Vanderbilt University (USA) will be carried out later. It explains that the project emerged from two quite different starting points--one based on the academic/research significance of academic writin