Conference presentation
V Congreso de la Red Latinoamericana de Centros y Programas de Escritura Monterrey, México, 11, 12 y 13 de octubre de 2023
V Congreso de la Red Latinoamericana de Centros y Programas de Escritura (Monterrey, México, 11/10/2023 - 13/10/2023)
13/10/2023
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Abstract
Writing centres in the US tradition are rare in Australia and Scotland, but writing is supported and taught in most universities, often in combination with a wider focus on learning and language, which is reflected in the most common names for this work with students: Academic Language and Learning (ALL) in Australia and Learning Development (LD) in Scotland. Compared to traditional academic disciplines the teaching and support of students' academic language and learning is a relatively young field, characterised by great diversity of institutional structures and pedagogic practice, just as writing centres are in Latin America.
In this presentation we will present two projects that have allowed us to gain deeper insights into these structures and practices and have provided us with a powerful tool to reflect on where we as educators are, where we want to go, and how we can shape the way our work on writing and learning develops in the future.
From 1993 to 2015 the Association for Academic Language and Learning (AALL) created and maintained a database of ALL centres/units at 39 Australian universities. This was then updated and expanded to 42 universities through another survey project in 2021. The comparison of the previous and updated databases offers valuable insight into how universities resource and support academic language and learning across Australia. The challenges encountered in navigating the current university environment, as well as recent findings, are useful to inform policy makers, administrators and professional educators providing academic language and learning support in universities. Inspired by the benefits of the ALL database, ScotHELD (Scottish Higher Education Learning Developers) created a similar database in 2022-3, including data about teaching practice to gain an overview of both structures and pedagogy in the field. This presentation will present the databases created in Australia and Scotland and the procedures used to create them, before outlining the benefits they offer to those who teach academic writing, language and learning in each country.
Details
- Title
- V Congreso de la Red Latinoamericana de Centros y Programas de Escritura Monterrey, México, 11, 12 y 13 de octubre de 2023
- Creators
- Ursula Canton (Corresponding Author) - Glasgow Caledonian UniversitySally Ashton-Hay (Contributor) - Southern Cross UniversityAlex Barthel (Contributor) - Association of Academic Language & Learning (AALL)Alexander Cuthbert (Contributor) - University of Strathclyde
- Conference
- V Congreso de la Red Latinoamericana de Centros y Programas de Escritura (Monterrey, México, 11/10/2023 - 13/10/2023)
- Identifiers
- 991013142811802368
- Academic Unit
- Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Students; Student Outreach
- Language
- Spanish
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation