This week I have attempted to think about the ways in which non-traditional students are positioned by their text books. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of discourse, I’ve attempted to begin unpacking the power relationships between the student and the text, highlighting how non traditional students tend to be subordinate to the text.
You will notice that in this text I have a reference I need to check up on. A good tip when you are in the flow of your writing is to make notes like this and to check up on references afterwards so you don’t lose your focus. It’s a minor point, but worth sharing!
In reply to a request from Sandra for a brief biography I’ve provided a very small snapshot of whom I am and why I’m writing. I hope this allows you to contextualise my work!
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8 comments:
Hi Kate,
I've enjoyed reading through your wiki and blog entries -- what a great project, and you've made a fantastic start already. It's interesting to see how you've broken the title down into sections and are focussing on each one in turn.
I wonder how it feels doing a literature review in this way -- that is, making your writing and the process behind it public? Does it change the way you go about your writing?
I also notice that interaction on the blog and wiki have been sparse, unfortunately, which must feel a little odd given that this is a public project...you must be wondering, "is anyone out there??". Well, there are some!
I do have one suggestion which may make it easier for people to engage with your wiki, especially if they come to it for the first time now when you are well into the project, and that is to break up your writing into separate pages, and to use new pages for each new bit of writing you do. These pages could be listed on the home page and hyperlinked there, so that at a glance, one could have an overview of how the project is shaping up to date. When I return to the home page, I'll also be able to see exactly what's new and I haven't read yet, and so can go straight there. I think this kind of structure may feel more navigable than having all text on one page. Just some thoughts...
I'll be back, but for now, good luck with this!
Kathy
Hi Kate
This is a fascinating project which I have looked at a few times but not quite got around to leaving any comment.
My interest in this is that I'm making very slow progress on a PhD at the University of Brighton which takes an Academic Literacies approach to student academic reading. My progress is so slow that it is currently stalled completely! I'm hoping that reading and responding to your work will also help me make some progress.
I have just read your first draft of ‘The Power of the Text" I'm not familiar with Ball, although he/she sounds very interesting. I'd find it very helpful if you could give us a bibliography. The in-text references are useful but they only give part of the picture. I've been trying to struggle my way through Foucault and am beginning to find him easier. Certainly, in comparison with Lacan, for example, he is very readable. There is an interesting essay on discourse by Foucault which is collected in The Order of Discourse’ in Young, R (Ed) Untying the Text: A Poststructuralist Reader. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. There are also two very good lectures on the relationship between power and knowledge in Gordon, Colin (Ed) Foucault, M (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, edited by. New York: Pantheon Books. I found both of these relatively readable.
The other point I'd like to comment on in your writing is in your rewrite of the key theoretical concepts section. I found this really interesting to read, particularly in the way in which your ideas has developed from the first draft to the second. It was interesting to see how your analysis of Bourdieu developed. He is a writer who I find very difficult to read in the original translation. It's like wading through cold custard! You say that habitas defined as agency is going to be the most useful aspect of this concept in your work, but you perhaps need to develop this a little?? Again, I am woefully ignorant of Reay’s work, but I can see that this aspect of habitas sounds really appealing although I'm not quite sure exactly how from what you say about it so far.
I hope that this is the sort of stuff that you need. I guess doing something in this way is very new and none of us are quite sure exactly what is needed or how to contribute.
I'd also like to say that I really like the way you write. You have a very clear and readable style which makes it enjoyable to engage with your ideas.
All the best
Rob Abbott
Lecturer, University of Chichester;
stalled PHD student, University of Brighton
Just found the Wiki - I do find it hard to know when I am in a wiki and when I am in a blog.... Just wondered if you had read Fairbairn and Fairbairn on Reading at University? I think it is an interesting piece of work.
While I think you are right to flag the reduced contact hours = more independent study from students theme I think it is less about the hours and more about the number of students tutors have. University has always been about 'reading for a degree' but the support tutors provided was rooted in a much more intimate and tacit pedagogy when the staff student ratio was lower and tutors could and did respond to their students outside formal contact time. Nowadays, lots of us try to be responsive but it is harder with class sizes of 40, 60 or higher as compared with 15, 20 or 30.
I wanted to say 'Hi' to Hobacus! Your email stopped getting through to you! This is Sandra from London Met - it you still want to be part of my Learn Higher Advisory Group, could you email me?
Best
Sandra
I do agree with REB's point in re the impact of staff/student ratios on the quality of the tutor/student relationship.
When I was at North London Poly, a small group of us with the same personal tutor, were really welcomed into academia by him. He would invite us to lunch and discussions - it built our confidence, it developed our thinking and gave us a really valuable academic experience. I doubt this happens much anymore - especially at the new universities who tend to get the least funding (especially research funding) even though they tend to be the ones that attract Widening Participation students.
This also links to Giddens and the notion of risk and trust. How easy is it to take risks when a non-initiate with no real stake or voice in their own academic experience? Further, with the debate about Widening Particpation (dumbing down etc.) defining the new non-traditional student as transgressive (they can't write, they won't read, they don't come to classes), university staff are being asked to monitor and police their studnets rather than to develop trust/platonic relationships.
ALSO - I think HOBACUS' response to the development of the Bourdieu section - and further suggestions in reading - and writing really useful.
Best
Sandra
Hi Kathy
Good point about the structure - will over the next week or so, create links to each section of the review and then a link to the overall essay each week as it evolves..
In terms of doing a literature review in public, yes, I'm sure it does affect the writing.. However, I also think the process of typing, rather than writing a draft essay makes me try and get my writing as sharp as possible. Something about typed text makes me want to get a polished article.. I wonder if other people have experienced this?
Kate
Hi Hobacus
Thanks for the comments.
The references on Foucault are really useful and i'll follow up on those.
Yes, I will provide a bibliography - good point and thanks for noting it.
In terms of Bourdieu, yes I will have to develop further the idea of habitus as agentic, particularly as that is such a contested statement! Many writers would disagree with me on that.. Yes, a third rewrite will be necessary.. watch this space!
Kate
Reb
Yes, I must say, like Sandra, I also agree with your point. I now teach class sizes of on average 40-50 students and trying to engage that amount of students is very difficult. I will mention this in the literature review.
Kate
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