Student teachers’ experiences and understandings of academic writing in their professional training

• The degree objectives for primary school teacher education in Sweden stipulate that students should be able to “demonstrate communicative ability in listening, speaking and writing in support of the educational activities” (SFS 1993:100/SFS 2021:1338). In contrast, the student teachers take part in, for example, two degree thesis courses of 15 ECTSC points each and hand in multiple written assignments where their academic writing ability is put to the test. For instance, in the courses in mother tongue (Swedish), they are expected to “convey the core content of the course in writing in accordance with academic written language conventions”. The incongruity between the degree objectives and course objectives forms the bases and the research questions of this study where teacher students’ experiences of academic writing, both prior and during teacher education, are investigated. The study includes interpretations of the student teachers’ understandings of what is expected of them as regards academic writing, along with support structures. We highlight similarities and differences in the statements between different types of student groups and whether factors such as age and previous university studies affect their experiences and understandings. Data in this study consist of student teachers’ responses to a survey sent out to students in three courses, at three different stages of their primary teacher education; at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of their four year program. The survey was sent out in March 2020 and May 2021. A total of 126 students responded to the survey, ranging in ages from 21 to 53, of which approximately half of them stated having a previous vocational training. The survey was constructed in Google Forms and distributed to all students in the three courses through the courses’ digital platform. It was presented both as a notification on the portal’s notice board and sent out individually to all participants in the courses. The anonymous survey was open for three weeks (and a reminder was sent out). The survey had twelve questions which were yes/no questions and nine of these also had the option to add comments in order to be able to obtain both qualitative and quantitative responses. The responses have been analysed in several stages starting with the automatic descriptive results that are created in Google Forms which provide an overview of the individual answers to each question and diagrams illustrating percentages relating to the answers. This was followed by a division between which primary teacher education program the students participates in (for lower or upper primary school) and tables distinguishing between variables (the questions) which were all colour coded. The responses were furthermore analysed to discover connections and patterns along with Ricoeur’s (1993) theory of interpretation. The results show that a majority of the student teachers say that they have previous knowledge of some form of academic and/or scientific writing. However, they also express a need of increased support in their writing and ask for more academic writing practice during their teacher education. Respondents also indicate knowing about the support structure at the university, the Unit for Academic Language (ASK), but do not use it, instead the respondents have sought support among their peers. Furthermore, the incongruities between the degree objectives and course objectives in the steering documents also appear in the student responses; they are for example uncertain of what is expected of them concerning both criteria and assessment on academic writing demands in different courses. The study might be seen as limited by the size of the respondents. There might also be an issue regarding the student teachers’ interpretation of “academic writing” which led to a wide range of responses. Nevertheless, the study seem to capture the essentials put forward, that writing needs to be a part of education, from early literacy to professional life as a matter of democracy.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Academic writing

teacher education

survey

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)