I am at the very early stages of a PhD which takes an Academic
Literacies approach to the issue of student academic reading. I have
just started some pilot studies with students in two subject areas.
Although I am only talking to a very small number of students (three
from each subject area), my experience of students and their reading is
different to the other views that have been expressed so far on this topic.
One of the groups of students is taking a module on Postmodernism and
are being asked to read some very difficult material, Frederic Jameson,
Baudrillard, Judith Butler, to name but three. What has impressed me so
far in the research has been the diligence and the tenacity of the
students in struggling through this pretty tough reading. What is also
interesting is both the different ways in which students engage with
this reading and the different senses they seem to be making of it. How
they struggle, for example, to relate this new and very unfamiliar
reading to concepts and ideas which are more familiar. I'm also
impressed with the use that students are making of the lectures and
seminars they are attending, using these to roughly map out the
territory that is explored in more detail in the reading. I'm very aware
that my little group of volunteer subjects may not be wholly
representative of the student body as a whole, but I think we must
remember that there are a lot of students out there who are engaged in
their studies and who do undertake the reading they are set.
It's very early days for my own research and my task for the summer will
be to analyse the interview material that I am gathering at the moment.
I'll let you know when I have something more definite to report!
Rob Abbott
University of Chichester
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