Academic literacy and student diversity: evaluating a curriculum-integrated inclusive practice intervention in the United Kingdom

Article


Calvo, S., Celini, L., Morales, A., Martínez, J. and Núñez-Cacho Utrilla, P. 2020. Academic literacy and student diversity: evaluating a curriculum-integrated inclusive practice intervention in the United Kingdom. Sustainability. 12 (3). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031155
TypeArticle
TitleAcademic literacy and student diversity: evaluating a curriculum-integrated inclusive practice intervention in the United Kingdom
AuthorsCalvo, S., Celini, L., Morales, A., Martínez, J. and Núñez-Cacho Utrilla, P.
Abstract

The sustainability of universities is based, among other aspects, on their ability to adapt to changes and the needs of students, an increasingly diverse population. In this sense, Academic literacy provision at universities tends to be centralized and to offer language support for general academic literacy purposes rather than language development that responds in a more nuanced way to the particular literacy needs of students’ disciplines. Yet, in recent years, several studies have supported the integration of academic literacy into subject teaching outlining the principles of an inclusive model of academic literacy instruction. This paper draws on a theoretical framework developed by Wingate to evaluate a curriculum-integrated inclusive practice intervention in the United Kingdom with students from a first-year credit-bearing module at Middlesex University Business School. The study used a mixed methods approach that includes a literature review, secondary data, feedback questionnaire and a focus group to evaluate our teaching method and reflect on the collaboration of the team members to develop this inclusive pedagogical approach. The findings suggest that, on the whole, this intervention was perceived by both the module teaching team and students as positive, welcoming and often crucial for supporting undergraduate students into the disciplinary discourse of their subject of study. Yet, recommendations were made with respect to developing better guidelines for subject lecturers on how to deliver the integrated academic literacy as well as the importance of the participation of students, student learning assistants and graduate teaching assistants in the design of the intervention. This study contributes to the literature on inclusive practice intervention and pedagogical approaches to integrating academic literacy into subject teaching for a diverse student population, contributing to the social sustainability of the universities.

Keywordsacademic literacy, curriculum-integrated design, inclusive practice intervention, student diversity
PublisherMDPI AG
JournalSustainability
ISSN2071-1050
Electronic2071-1050
Publication dates
Print06 Feb 2020
Online06 Feb 2020
Publication process dates
Deposited10 Feb 2020
Accepted04 Feb 2020
Output statusPublished
Publisher's version
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Copyright Statement

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.

Additional information

This article belongs to the Special Issue Reflective Learning in Higher Education.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031155
LanguageEnglish
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