Student or scholar? Transforming identities through a research writing group

Editors’ introduction: A collaborative exploration of reflexivity as a pedagogic bridge towards publication for international postgraduate students

“…The writing group as a pedagogical arrangement to support postgraduate students has been explored by a wide range of researchers and documented by many practitioners (Lassig et al, 2013;Lee & Boud, 2003;Li & Vandermensbrugghe, 2011). The writing groups have ranged from informal and unstructured gatherings to formal and structured with required tasks.…”

“…They can also be targeted at groups of students at a similar point in their research journey, and in this way collaboration and mutual problem solving is afforded. Lassig et al (2013) describe their experiences of facilitating an interactive doctoral writing group and, through this process, they document the student-to-scholar identity shift that was experienced by each of its postgraduate members as a result of their ongoing engagement in the writing group. They explain that the writing group blurred the division between doctoral supervisor and student as each member, including the supervisor, took the role of being both a writer and an editor.…”

“…This created an interactive and collaborative learning community where each member was actively engaged in contributing to, and learning from, the knowledge, experiences and contributions of others. Lassig et al (2013) conceptualised their reciprocal learning arrangement as a community of practice (Wenger, 1998). However, we are somewhat cautious about using this term given its overuse and resultant lack of specificity (Amin & Roberts, 2008;Lindkvist, 2005).…”

“…Participants also became more confident as writers and as readers of others' texts. Both Li and Vandermensbrugghe (2011) and Lassig et al (2013) suggest that positive discoursal and affective outcomes are experienced when writing groups create a collective of mutually committed participants that focuses on learning-not correcting, and on constructive feedback.…”

“…They, like the academics who supervise them, are becoming part of managerial regimes where outputs are counted and equate to progress (Lei & Hu, 2015). Despite these expectations, Lassig et al (2013) observe that the pathway towards publication remains elusive for many postgraduate students. There is growing recognition that students lack the necessary support during their postgraduate candidature to prepare them for the demands of academic publication (Cuthbert & Spark, 2008;Danaby & Lee, 2012;Kamler, 2008).…”