The academy has long catered for vocational or professional disciplines such as law, medicine, accounting and engineering and over the years these professions have developed identities that are ‘stable and robust’ (Muller... [ view full abstract ]
The academy has long catered for vocational or professional disciplines such as law, medicine, accounting and engineering and over the years these professions have developed identities that are ‘stable and robust’ (Muller 2009, p.214). More recently new fields, sometimes referred to as ‘fourth generation professions’ (ibid) have been developed. This development has resulted in the introduction of new genres to the academy (Lea 2012), but challenges to traditional academic literacy have proved divisive for those who teach on these postgraduate programmes. Some are concerned that if the traditional language of academia is not employed, student reasoning will not demonstrate the sophistication required at this level. In addition, they argue that their new disciplines are often viewed as somewhat lightweight, and deviating from accepted traditional academic approaches is not a good way to gain the esteem of other disciplines. Others, however, maintain that the use of ‘academic mumbo-jumbo’ is often inappropriate for students entering industry, and that traditional academic writing requirements do not serve the best interests of the discipline or the students. This division as to appropriate communication styles is exacerbated by the large number of international students who enrol on these programmes. In order to explore the perceptions of these academics more closely I conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 UK university staff who were either teaching or supervising postgraduate hospitality students, or assisting them with academic writing. Findings indicate that the essayist approach is still dominant and, despite the reservations of a number of academics as to its appropriacy for some aspects of the discipline, there seems to be little appetite or energy to challenge the status quo. The implications of these findings for the type of academic literacy employed in the teaching and learning of these ’new’ vocational disciplines is explored.
Lea, M. 2012. “New Genres in the Academy: Issues of Practice, Meaning Making and Identity.” In M. Castellō and C. Donahue (eds.) University Writing: Selves and Texts in Academic Societies, 93–110. Bingley: Emerald.
Muller, J. 2009. “Forms of Knowledge and Curriculum Coherence.” Journal of Education and Work 22 (3): 205–226.
