The (double) transition Becoming a (peripheral) member of the academic and the professional discourse community? Vibeke Ankersborg & Karl-Heinz Pogner (Copenhagen Business School) Presented at #EARLI 2015, Limassol (Cypris), August 25, 2015

1. THE (DOUBLE) TRANSITION
BECOMING A (PERIPHERAL) MEMBER OF THE ACADEMIC AND THE
PROFESSIONAL DISCOURSE COMMUNITY?
Vibeke Ankersborg & Karl-Heinz Pogner
Copenhagen Business School
EARLI 2015, Limassol (Cypris), August 25, 2015

2. MASTER’S THESIS STUDENTS’ APPROACHES TO WRITING AT
COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL
THE FRAMEWORK
TEXT PRODUCTION & THINKING /KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION /”ACTING”
CONTRIBUTION TO RESEARCH AS “CONVERSATION” IN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES
TEXT PRODUCTION & (PERIPHERAL) PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITIES
GENRE AND DISCOURSE: PREFORM OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING AND LEARNING (UNIVERSITY
WRITING)
DAS: ”DISCOURSE & ACTION SPACE” *
ACADEMIC TEXT PRODUCTION AS ANOTHER SECOND / FOREIGN LANGUAGE TO LEARN (LX)
CBS: TWO ”MASTERS”: ACADEMIA & BUSINESS/SOCIETY (RIGOR & RELEVANCE)
A PILOT STUDY
APPLIED NETWORK ANALYSIS
PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS: CHALLENGES: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION // TEXT
PRODUCTION
*KNORR, DAGMAR / POGNER, KARL-HEINZ (2015): VOM SCHREIBEN ZUM „TEXTEN“. AKADEMISCHE TEXTPRODUKTION
UNTER DEN BEDINGUNGEN VON MEHRSPRACHIGKEIT. IN: FREMDSPRACHEN LEHREN UND LERNEN 44,1.

3. Embedded
notion of
text
production
Academic approach
Peripheral
membership
Zone of prox.
Development
Exploring & Scaffolding
Teaching
Learning
“as if- membership”
”as if -Participation”
Seminars
Workshops
”Research Project”
Supervision
Academic
Literacies
[Business, Society]
Communities:
Epistemological
Interpretative
Discourse (DC)
Practice (CoP)
-> genre
-> intertextuality
-> argumentation
-> structure
->methodology
Writing
<->
Thinking
<->
investigating
Institutional
power:
Course
descriptions
Learning
objectives
Knowledge
production
Framework:
Text production as social interaction
Text Pedagogy
Business University
Relevance & Rigor
Text
production
Thesis
Writing
Research
Project
Institutional
power:
Evaluating
Grading
????
Ownership
Voice
Identity
double binds?
”Scientist” and
”Learner”
Students’
Contribution

4. Idea generation, mind mapping:
Group discussions (recordings), maps,
diagrams, lists
 negotiations of academic and ”professional”
roles and identities
Semi-structured interviews (basis: text
produced and process so far
 Students’ challenges and choices
 Knowledge production, problem solving, text
production

5. Pilot study
6 students
4 theses
Thesis start February/March 2014
4 semi-structured qualitative interviews
June/July 2014
Focus: Thesis process and approach to writing
Analysis inspired by Attride-Stirling (2001): Thematic networks and
Guest et al. (2012): Applied thematic analysis

6. 4 theses
4 research
designs
4 approaches
to writing
Approaches to writing
• Brainstorm
• Keywords
• Pieces of texts
• Put it together
• Edit later
• Rought texts
while reading
• Finalizes a
section
• Adds corrections
• First draft has
manuscript
quality
• Discuss every word
• Spend days on writing a
few sentences
• Write paragraphs in
reading order
• Aim at first draft has
manuscript quality
• Lyng write what springs
to mind
• Louise adds and corrects
• Rearrange pararaphs
• Discuss it – again
• Present draft is 10th
version
Iben: Case study
Christina: Deductive
with empirical test
Julie & Julie: Literature review
– purely theoretical
Lyng & Louise: Inductive,
ethnographic
Hypothesis: There is correlation
between research design and
approach to writing and
personality.

7. Writing
helps the
students
progress,
but 5 of
them don´t
realize it
Writing facilitates knowledge
(- But only write fairly little!)
Writing leads to
deleting and
adding paragraphs
Writing helps stay
disciplined
Concepts are
choosen in part as
a consequense of
writing
Semi-loose writing
about a new theory
deepened insight
into that theory
Writing changed
the structure
Writing the
introduction early
created clarity
and helps stay on
track
Writing and drawing
while reading, helps
select the literature
Tentative research question:
How can we enhance students’
awareness of the role of writing?

8. challenge:
Reading and
writing
develop the
structure,
but a chosen
stucture
facilitates
writing
Structure seems to be
the name of the game
Fixation on
structure prevents
writing
Adjust structure
wile writing
Lack of structure
at chapter level
prevented writing
Chose the classic
structure for
master’s theses and
simply started to
write
Deeper insight
into theories
changed the
structure – which
makes writing
about them easier
Lack of
knowledge about
the role of thesis
structure
prevented writing
Methodological
approach dictates the
structure of that
chapter – then they
could write
Structure
creates control
– then she can
write in all
directions

9. Lack of
knowledge
is a key,
but no
clear
pattern
Factors that block writing
Unsure about
choice of literature
on methodology
Unsure about the
correlation between
research design and
thesis structure
Captured by
data ollection
”Must be there”
praragraphs are
borring to write
Lack of
understanding of
the role of parts
of methodology
Data collection
before the
summer vacation
– a time factor
Lack of
understanding of
theoretical
perspective
Inspiration
Practical issues
Methodology
Lack of access to
literature – the
library
Things of interests
are easy to write
Needs to
read more
Pairs lead to
more discussion
than writing

10. Thesis
activities
influence
students’
thesis
proces
Traces of learning
Inductive approach
chosen based on
methodology class
Literature review
style thesis
chosen based on
thesis seminar
Controlled approach to
”unfounded grounds”
Too old to change habits
on writing style at
sentence level
Slides provide
structure and a lens for
reading literature
about methodology
Methodology
classes provided
an overview
Tools to shape
the topic
Ideas from other
students
Tools directly applied in the
students’ writing process
New knowledge on
types of theses A more
refleksive
approach

11. We could
probably
utilize
influential
factors
more
Other influential factors (and social
information processing (Sitkin et al.)
Methodology class led
to the choice of
research approach
before anything else
Internship led to
identifying the
topic
Supervisors’
suggestions led to
additional choices of
theory
Academic focus at
bachelor level led to
choice of reverse
research approach
Student job led to
identifying the topic
2 years ago
A former student
inspired choice
of theory
Core subject course
led to choice of
theory
Academic focus at
bachelor level led to
choice of analytical
approach
Academic
background
Classes
People
around the
students
Factors
outside CBS
Case
company

12. Regardless of
approach, students
could utilize writing
more and
universities could
utilize our means of
influence more
Conclusions:
Knowledge production vs. / 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
stucture
facilitates
writing
Lack of
knowledge is a
key, but no
clear pattern
We could
probably utilize
influential
factors more
Thesis
activities
(seminars,
workshops)
influence
students’
thesis process