Exploring pedagogical possibilities for transformative approaches to academic literacies in undergraduate Physics

Abstract

How  can  research  on  academic  literacies  throw  light  on  the  challenge  to  widen  access  to undergraduate  science  studies?  This  article  explores  what  an  academic  literacies  approach might  mean  in  the  context  of  undergraduate physics.  The  study  examines  the  pedagogical practices  and  student  learning  in  two  undergraduate Physics  courses,  a mainstream  and  an extended  course,  with  a  particular  focus  on  the  disciplinary  practice  of  problem-solving. Concepts  from  the  sociology  of  knowledge,  specifically  Legitimation Code  Theory,  offer  a useful analytical framework for characterising the movement between abstract principles and concrete contexts in problem-solving and understanding how meaning is encapsulated in the dense   representations   of   physics.   The   study   shows   that   with   more   time   and   careful pedagogical  attention,  the extended  course  was  able  to  make  more  explicit  the  literacy practices and epistemological functioning of the discipline. The study found that the extended course  adopted  a  more  explicitly  normative  approach  to  academic  literacy,i.e., inducting students  into  the  disciplinary  knowledge  and  norms  of  the  discipline,  but  elements  of  a transformative approach were also evident,i.e., opening up opportunities for these norms to be critiqued and contested.