Presentation at Academy of Management 2017 in Atlanta GA (07.08.2017) at the Symposium "European Higher Education

1. Karl-Heinz Pogner
Vibeke Ankersborg
Rigor AND relevance
Challenges of Master thesis writing at the
Copenhagen Business School
https://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?

3. Embedded
notion of
text
production
and
reception
Academic approach
Peripheral
membership
Zone of prox.
development
Exploring &
Scaffolding
Teaching /Learning
“as if- membership”
”as if -participation”
Workshops
Problem-based
Project
SupervisionAcademic /
Research
Literacies
[Management,
Business, Society]
DAS
Discourse (DC)
Practice (CoP)
-> genre
-> intertextuality
-> argumentation
-> structure
->methodology
Institutional
power:
Course
descriptions
Learning
objectives
Manuals
Knowledge
production
Framework:
Text production as social interaction
Text Pedagogy
Business University
Relevance & Rigor
Text
production
Thesis
Writing
Research
Project
Institutional
power:
Evaluating
Grading
Supervisor
Ownership
Voice
Identity
double binds?
Reflective
Practitioner
”Academic”
and ”Learner”
Students’
Contribution
Writing
<->
Thinking
<->
investigating
<->
Reading
Mining

4. Data collection and method
Student group discussions at workshops (idea generation, mind
mapping, knowledge production and text production processes),
students’ maps and diagrams
Text- /discourse-based interviews during project period about
students’ choices and challenges.
Retrospective interviews around journey plots (significant
experiences, ups and downs, intensity of learning);
combining narrative and visual data
Content Analysis, Thematic Network Analysis, Discourse Analysis
and Narrative Analysis : contextualizing / situationalizing
07-08-2017

5. Some preliminary findings
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6. Some preliminary findings
• Choosing (‘finding’) a topic is a highly positive significant event for many
• Dissertation/thesis writing is a highly charged experience for writers (ups and
downs more common than flat periods)
• Important role of the supervisor for both text production and the research
process
• Students faced similar difficulties: writing block, insecurity about whether
they are on the right track
• Some students sought help from others; others worked in isolation
• Not many students refer to dissertation writing support!
• Students liked talking about their dissertation writing and drawing the
journey plot/s
• Moments of Epiphany
implications for pedagogy: the usefulness
of the instruments for awareness raising of
academic writing
• (Petric, Castello & Pogner 2017) 6

7. Teacher: Do you have an RQ yet?
Students: No, not yet
T: What is your next step?
S: To get out of the “reading trap” (black hole)
T: How will you do that?
S: By starting to write something
T: Yes, that is also a possibility. Writing is an excellent tool. What should you write
about, then?
S: Political marketing
T: yes, but that was not what I meant. That is your topic, right? If writing should be one
of the tools to climb out of the “reading trap”, what is it then you should write about?
What kind of writing, what should be the content of that writing?
S: We should choose a case and…
T: Why does it have to be a case study?
S: So that we can apply the theory on something practical
Transcript from WS ”Follow up” workshop
Ankersborg & Pogner (2016)

8. T: So you would like to choose a classical approach?
S: Yes
T: But you do not need a case study to do that
S: No, but we are at CBS, so….
T: That is an answer I am very sorry to hear
S: Yes, but it is simply because it is more relevant for our topic
T: Okay, that is a much better answer
S: It is the most obvious, so….
T: Okay, but what do you need in order to find a case?
S: We need to find out what kind of research results we wish to arrive at. It is still
unclear if it should be a chairperson or a party or what. We still need to delimit and
to find a focus and take it from there. That is, there are these theories that are more
relevant…. and we like those to have some kind of relevance for a practical example
T: So you would like to test the theories?
S: Yes
T: So, your research questions relate to the theories?
S: Possibly. Yeah/no/maybe.
Transcript from WS ”Follow up” workshop
Ankersborg & Pogner (2016)

9. Literature is not
comprehended
Case study
- but no case due to lack
of theoretical
understanding
No writing
due to no case
Literature is not
comprehended due to
lack of writing
Apply / Use/
Develop
The Vicious Circle of no writing- no
research
Ankersborg & Pogner (2016)

10. 07-08-2017

11. …. so how was the experience of the whole ups and downs and the
whole writing process emotionally? How would you describe it?
Honestly?
Yeah.
Horrible. Horrible. Absolutely. It feels good, when you have finished it,
but it is like doing … when you are in the army you have the retreat
parade which is horrible but when you finish it, it feels good.
What was most pleasant or difficult or horrible?
Because you kind of start, it is a lot of work. It is a lot of work. It is tons
of work. And you question why you do it, why bother, maybe you
should do something else? That is the thing. That is absolutely the
thing.
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13. 07-08-2017

14. I did the research questions, you understand the field of
research, you kind of understand how methodology
works, and I will mention one point the supervisor said,
what was an important point: …
When did you realise, what you were doing?
That was when the supervisor told me, that I was doing
research. That was like, I am! This IS research, and once
you understand that it is research, you are doing you have
to understand how social experiments are constructed,
you isolate it, you try to make it as objective as possible.
You eliminate random errors and all sorts of things, and
then you kind of realise the limitations of the thesis and
where you are and what is expected of you.
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15. To little
inside
knowledge
about the
research
process
Understanding the research process
Unsure about
choice of
literature on
methodology
Unsure about the
correlation between
research design and
thesis structure
Captured by
data collection
Reading without
a focus: When is
enough enough?
Lack of
understanding of
the role of parts
of methodology
Inductive studies
are seen as
descriptive
Lack of
understanding of
theoretical
perspective
The role of data
The role of
literature
The
interdependence
of different parts
”Read, read, read”
and no way out
What if data shows
something
unforeseen?
The role of
methodology
Unsure about
correlation
between RQ and
conclusion
Ankersborg & Pogner (2016)
Hypothesis: Focus on theory and
hypothetic-deductive thinking in
class creates insecurity and lack of
qualified choices in practical
research
Unsure about the
difference between
research results and
recommendations
for practice

16. 16
Knowledge and text production
Knowledge Text
production production

17. Regardless of
approach, students
could utilize writing
more and CBS could
utilize the means of
influence more
(Literacy Centre!
Research in Writing /
literacy)
Knowledge production and
text production
4 theses
4 research
designs
4
approaches
to writing
Writing
helps the
students
progress,
but 5 of
them
don´t
realize it
Challenge:
Reading and
writing
develop the
structure,
but a
chosen
structure
facilitates
writing
We could
probably utilize
influential
factors more
Thesis
activities
influence
students’
thesis
process
Ankersborg & Pogner (2016)
To little
inside
knowledge
about the
research
process

18. ”An academic literacies approach suggests that students
should not merely be socialised into academic contexts
and taught to conform to existing cultures; it conversely
advocates that students should be able to “read” the
discourse and then decide if they want to conform,
transform or resist”
(Badenhorst & Guerin 2016: 15).
”We are the Academy of Management, not of Business.
Take responsibility and help the world to solve problems!”
Anita McGahan, Presidential Address @ AOM2017, 06.08.2017
Conference” #Responsible Writing: Challenges for Schools,
Higher Education, Companies and Organizations” will take place
in 2018 (February 15th -16th) at the Copenhagen Business School in
Copenhagen. Info: / https://prowitec.wordpress.com/tagung-2017/
8/7/2017

19. Literature
Attride-Sterling, J. (2001): Thematic network analysis: An analytical tool for qualitative research. Qualitative
Research 2002, 1: 385-405.
Aitchison, C., & Lee, A. (2006). Research writing: Problems and pedagogies. Teaching in Higher Education, 11(3),
265–278.
Ankersborg, V. & K.-H. Pogner. (Almost) becoming an academic: Master’s thesis students’ approaches to writing at
Copenhagen Business School. A pilot study (Paper presented at LUNAS 2016, May 2016, Copenhagen University ).
Badenhorst, C. : & Guerin, C. (eds.) (2016): Research literacies and writing pedagogies for Masters and Doctoral
writers (Studies in Writing 31). Leiden & Boston: Brill.
Petric, B.; Castello, M. & Pogner; K.-H. (2017): Dissertation/thesis writing across Europe: Exploring student
writers’ experiences. Presented at the 8th Conference of the European Association of Teaching Academic Writing
(EATAW, June 18.-21, 2017
Castelló, M. & Iñesta, A. (2012). Texts as artefacts-in-activity: Developing authorial identity and academic voice in
writing academic research papers. In M. Castelló & C. Donahue (Eds.). University writing: Selves and texts in
academic societies (pp.179-200). Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Donahue, C. (2013). Negotiation, translinguality, and cross-cultural writing research in a new composition era. In
Canagarajah, A. S. (Ed.). Literacy as translingual practice: Between communities and classrooms (pp.149-161).
Abingdon: Routledge.
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20. Literature
Donahue, C. (2013). Negotiation, translinguality, and cross-cultural writing research in a new composition era. In
Canagarajah, A. S. (Ed.). Literacy as translingual practice: Between communities and classrooms (pp.149-161).
Abingdon: Routledge.
Harwood, N. & B. Petrić. (2017). Experiencing Master’s supervision: Perspectives of international students and
their supervisors. Abingdon: Routledge.
Pogner, K.-H. (2012). A social perspective on writing in the workplace: Communities of Discourse (DC) and
Communities of Practice (CoP). In: Rothkegel, A. & S. Ruda (Eds.): Communication on and via technology (pp. 83-
107). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.
Pogner, K.-H. & D. Knorr (2018, in prep.). From writing to "texting“: Academic text production under the
conditions of multilingualism. In Breuer, E. Lindgren, E,; Stavans, A. & E. van Steendam (eds.). New Perspectives
on Language and Education. [revised version of Knorr, D. & K.-H. Pogner (2015): Vom Schreiben zum ”Texten”:
Akademische Textproduktion unter den Bedingungen von Mehrsprachigkeit. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen
44,1: 110-122].
Russell, D. R., & V. Cortes (2012). Academic and scientific texts: the same or different communities? In M.
Castelló & C. Donahue (Eds.). University writing: Selves and texts in academic societies (pp. 1-17). Bingley, UK:
Emerald.
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