Academic discourse socialisation : a discursive analysis of student identity

摘要

This study set out to investigate how students construct their identities. Throughout theirsocialisation into academia, students are confronted with the paradox of learning as they negotiatethe opposing discourses of enslavement and mastery that construct higher education. Utilising acritical discursive psychology approach this research aimed to examine the implications thisparadox holds for the development of students’ identities. In-depth interviews with five master’sdegree students allowed for an examination of the linguistic resources available for students to drawon in constructing their accounts of student-hood. Analysis of the interpretive repertoires andideological dilemmas in the text revealed the uptake of contradictory subject positions inparticipants’ navigation of academic discourse. In order to address the inconsistencies associated with these conflicting ways of being a student, participants ‘worked’ a face in their interactionswith academic discourse. Their face-work served to address the paradox by integrating thecontradictory positions evident in their accounts. It is in the agency displayed in the integration ofthese disparate positions that the emancipating student is revealed.