Exploring writing as professional practice Workshop

Aim
This workshop is designed for academic staff at the University of Westminster working in practice-based fields, drawing on the CEPLW-funded project 'Writing as Professional Practice'. The workshop will explore the relationship between writing, professional learning and practice. It will provide participants with the opportunity to examine the part that writing plays in day-to-day professional practice in their own field. Participants will consider the implications of our approach for the development and delivery of professional-based learning.

Content
Our project is a collaboration between CEPLW at Westminster and the 'Practice-Based Professional Learning' Centre for Excellence at the Open University. We have been examining the relationship between writing and professional practice. We have interviewed a specific group of professional practitioners - university lecturers - about the range of writing that they accomplish in their everyday work. Our interviews have focused around specific examples - chosen by interviewees - of their own everyday workplace writing.
In the workshop we will introduce some preliminary findings from our project and examine the range of writing associated with everyday professional practice. Much of this workplace writing remains hidden and may be considered insignificant or unimportant in relation to more prestigious writing tasks. The workshop will bring the function and significance of this writing to the fore, illustrating the important part it plays in getting things done in the workplace. This focus on everyday professional writing provides a new and valuable tool for understanding the nature of practice-based knowledge and professional learning. We will explore the implications of our findings by inviting participants to explore their own experience of workplace professional writing. You will also have the opportunity to consider how you can build explicit attention to, and support for, students' everyday work-related writing into practice-based courses.

Workshop facilitators:
Dr Barry Stierer Dr Mary R. Lea
Educational Initiative Centre Institute of Educational Technology
University of Westminster The Open University

Date and time
Tuesday 21 April 11:00-13:00
(Refreshments provided)
Venue:
CEPLW Training Room (M513) at Marylebone
RSVP:
To confirm a place please email Ushala at balkisu@westminster.ac.uk.