‘I don’t f***ing care!’ Marginalia and the (textual) negotiation of an academic identity by university students

Abstract

This article charts the ways in which students negotiate an academic identity whilst pursuing academic tasks that are publicly observable precisely as 'academic tasks' to their peers. Previous research into aspects of student interaction that take place within university tutorial sessions has suggested that different kinds of student identity come into conflict as students interact, face-toface. Most notably, the imperative of 'doing education' -as a keen proto-academic seeking a good final degree classification -is often overridden by the imperative of 'doing being a student' -as an average and/or indifferent student who does not stand out. In this article, however, it is not the university tutorial but a slightly different and hitherto unexplored site of interaction that is foregrounded: the university library textbook. As with tutorials, the margins of library textbooks are spaces within which individually accomplished research becomes publicly observable -in the former as group work, and in the latter as student marginalia. Drawing on discourse analytic concepts such as 'footing' and 'stake' this article seeks to understand what student marginalia can tell us about the ways in which the tension between 'doing education' and 'doing being a student' is managed and negotiated in sites other than the university tutorial.

Graduate Students’ Construction of Researcher Identities Explored Through Discourse Analysis

“…Similar to other discourse studies, (e.g., Attenborough, 2011;Benwell & Stokoe, 2010), our findings point to the tension between taking up an academic identity, in this case a researcher identity, and being just an average graduate student 'who doesn't know much.' Overall, the inherent complexities of constructing and navigating a researcher identity were noted.…”

“…This can make developing a research identity a difficult challenge, particularly for students who enter with extensive professional experience, as they may begin to find themselves in a place where they are oriented to as novices in the research world but experts in their profession, leading them to a new and challenging territory (Murakami-Ramalho, Militello, & Piert, 2013). As Attenborough (2011) pointed out, there is a delicate balance of navigating a newfound identity and guiding students through this process. Identity work, particularly when linked to displaying what you know, can be inherently risky for some students, and brings with it the potential for losing face in front of peers (Paulus & Lester, 2013).…”

“…Discourse research has focused on a variety of university environments, including office hours (Limberg, 2007), blogs (Lester & Paulus, 2011;Paulus & Lester, 2013), face-to-face tutorials and small group discussions (Benwell & Stokoe, 2002, 2005Cromdal, Tholander, & Aronsson, 2007), and textbook marginalia (Attenborough, 2011). Much of this research has pointed to how students delicately display their knowledge and even resist displaying 'knowing' and 'learning' for others.…”

Categorical feminism

“…The data were analysed using discursive psychology (DP), an ethnomethodological approach to spoken and textual interaction (Ashmore 1993;Attenborough 2010Attenborough , 2011Attenborough , 2014Edwards 2007). DP attends to the details of text construction, organisation and rhetorical orientation, including the notion of 'recipient design'; that is, the 'multitude of ways' in which actions like assessments are constructed to 'display an orientation and sensitivity to' their intended recipients (see Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson 1974:727).…”

Student Life; Student Identity; Student Experience: Ethnomethodological Methods for Pedagogical Matters

“…Finally, a large collection of marginalia was gathered from student library books (Attenborough, 2011). The interaction on display here was either between student and text, or between students over time as they responded to -or 'tagged' -each other's comments.…”