The acquisition of academic literacies during an honours research preparation module

Abstract: Present research into how postgraduate students should be supported to acquire discipline-specific literacies is lacking. This research adds to the conversation by illustrating the ways in which a research preparation module, informed by a writing in the disciplines (WID) approach, prepared a group of Human Resource Management Honours students to submit their research reports. The module required groups of students to submit a series of developmental assignments, and then to use feedback from supervisors and Academic Literacy Practitioners to re-write these assignments as sections of the final research report. Since literacies are acquired in particular contexts, a case-study approach, which focuses on exploring phenomenon in context, was chosen. Multiple methods of data collection and analysis were used to obtain a rich understanding of how the module supported students’ acquisition of academic literacies. The students’ developmental assignments and final research reports were compared against a marking rubric to demonstrate how drafting sections of the research report multiple times helped the students to write in their discipline. Students shared their experiences of the support offered in the module during focus group discussions held towards the end of each semester. Staff members discussed the challenges they faced while supervising the students during open-ended interviews. Both the transcripts of the focus group discussions and the interviews were analysed via content analysis. The findings from this research suggest that a research preparation module can help students acquire the academic literacies necessary to complete their research report. By writing the developmental assignments and participating in the Academic Literacies tutorials students were supported to submit the final research report. However, one possible weakness of the intervention was that part-time students had difficulties accessing support services that would have supported them to develop their academic literacies further. This research also found that support staff need to ensure that feedback and guidance provided to the students is more aligned to the Human Resource Management discipline. Since this research mainly examined students’ perspectives of the module, this study recommends that additional research could examine how a WID approach affects supervisor autonomy and workload.M.Ed. (Higher Education