Conceptions of writing and reading implied in tertiary teaching practices across the curriculum

CARLINO, PAULA

Paris

Congreso; Writing Research Across Borders Conference III / Recherches sur l'Écriture Sans Frontiéres III; 2014

Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense e ISAWR

Paper presented in the Panel "Current trends in Latin American Writing Studies: Challenges and Opportunities" (other panelists: Natalia Avila, Charles Bazerman, Desirée Motta-Roth y Elizabeth Narváez). My presentation examined tertiary teachers´ conceptions about reading and writing, as they have been inferred from their declared practices in a national survey conducted in Argentina to more than 500 disciplinary faculty of teacher education institutions. Following a WAC/WID framework, the study focused the viewpoints of teachers within the disciplines, and not only writing teachers´ perspectives. The survey results revealed different literacy uses promoted in their courses. It also showed their implied ideas about how academic literacy is learnt and their conceptions on the nature of reading and writing. Two modes of addressing literacy within their courses emerged from the data: the "peripheral" and the "intertwined" teaching. These modes would respectively correspond to dissimilar conceptions: "writing and reading as separable skills previously learnt", which renders unnecessary tertiary teachers mediation in literacy tasks; versus "writing and reading as situated social practices", which can only be learnt in context with expert support.  SEE http://conference2014.fr/