This presentation reports a research project that used participatory action research to evolve and develop a learning community, with the objective of supporting international postgraduate students to identify their academic writing difficulties and to consider strategies to overcome them. The guiding research question was: How can international postgraduate students utilise peer support and develop agency to identify their academic writing difficulties and develop strategies to improve them?

Postgraduate students were chosen as participants because of the demand for quantity and complexity in their writing. Postgraduate studies are considered to be highly dependent on academic writing competence, and many students face writing difficulties that can negatively affect their academic goals. Various studies have reported postgraduate student’s difficulties with academic writing (Al Badi, I. A. H., 2015;Abdulkareem, 2013). 

Odena and Burgess (2017) stated that improvement of academic writing is important for both research and future employment, and advocate the development of strategies to overcome writing difficulties. Chiappetta-Swanson and Watt (2011) identified weak and inappropriate development of thesis writing strategies as a reason why international students take longer to complete their degrees. Brunton (2009) emphasised that strategies for improving academic writing are also significant for university professors as they have to give written feedback to L2 learners, it would benefit them to know the types and methods of feedback that have more practical effects. Van Lier (2006) and Livingstone (2011) stated that if errors continue to occur, it would lead to students and supervisors frustration. 

The study is based in New Zealand.  The policy of the country is in internationalising their universities and increasing the number of students (Greenwood et al., 2014). However, the problems identified by students and the processes of critical reflection and interactions that occurred will have resonances in Europe. 

Agency involves the willingness and capability to identify problems and strategies to create change. Hon and Pereira (2018) stated that self-agency is the result of comparing the anticipated representation of a result and the real result that happens, resulting in being able to determine one’s own outcomes. The individual chooses an action and controls his or her own action. In general, individuals have a distinctive feeling of being in control of occurrences initiated by their own actions (Synofzik, Vosgerau, & Newen, 2008). Therefore, the sense of agency relates to the feeling of controlling, causing or generating one’s own actions and external happenings (Haggard & Chambon, 2012, Gallagher, 2000a, 2000b). Students exercise agency in taking responsibility for their own learning by mentioning their difficulties and the areas in which they need to get feedback.  As postgraduate students in New Zealand do not attend classes that teach writing and help them improve (Smith, M. K., 2003), development of an attitude of agency is important to help them overcome their difficulties and make changes.

There has been many studies devoted to various aspects of students’ and teachers’ perceptions of literacy, but as Kern (1995) pointed out, not many have investigated how students’ and teachers’ perceptions of effective literacy lead to improved practice.

PAR, as explained by Kemmis and McTaggart (2005), is an approach that utilises collaborative research to make strategic change. The results gained from action research can be used both practically and theoretically (Zuber-Skerritt, 2011). Glassman, Erdem, and Bartholomew (2013) stated that action research acknowledges the importance of the group in working together towards the same goal. Yang and Williamson (2011) argued the need for learning communities to be studied through practical approaches. I selected action research for this study because it allowed the participants, facilitators and I to discuss and share ideas and difficulties, and critically reflect on them.

The study utilized qualitative approach and is a case study. Stake (2006) defines a case study an approach that tries to deeply study instances of a phenomenon. In the study, I invited international postgraduate students who wanted to better their writing skills to a writing group at a university in New Zealand. Interviews and observation were my main sources of gathering data. Approximately one hour sessions were held every two weeks for nearly five months. Participants were required to communicate and collaborate with one another with the help of the facilitators to further investigate the writing difficulties they were facing and find solutions. A participatory action research (PAR) approach was used. In PAR, all those actively involved in a project are participants and co-researchers of their practice (Brydon-Miller, Kral, Maguire, Noffke, & Sabhlok, 2011; Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005). My role as a formal researcher was to observe, interview, analyse and report, and be a participant. Kemmis and McTaggart (2005) and Smith (2014) emphasise the importance of the researcher willing to contribute as an equal participant. Bogdan and Biklen (2007), and Skate (2003) state that analysis of data begins at the same time as data is being collected. As Kemmis and McTaggart (2005) reflect, this is particularly evident in PAR as it has direct relation to the collaborative study. After each session, the facilitators and I held reflective debriefing sessions. Accordingly, we made plans in relation to the participants’ responses. The role of the facilitators and I was to evolve, shape and design the study while participants through their contribution shaped the direction. During the collection of data, I transcribed each session and the interviews prior to the proceeding session. As the group gradually built to a learning community, the collation of information, ideas, interpretations, reflections and exploratory analysis became evident. The reactions and reflections of the participants, facilitators and I were part of the ongoing analysis and interpretation during the learning community. After reading the transcripts, the participants were divided into three groups according to their involvement and participation and three sets of interview questions were used. Through the process of the learning community, participants discussed and critically reflected on difficulties in writing, strategies, and participation within the learning community. I codeveloped narratives from the participants and facilitators and wrote my own narrative of my developing understandings of what occurred in the community.

Data identified the academic writing difficulties of international students, the strategies they used in improving these difficulties, their agency in improving their writing, and their collaboration within the learning community. Action research contributed in accessing the participant’s understanding of change and development. I as the researcher, by being involved and part of the learning community gained a deeper understanding of the participants’ statements. The initial results signified that the major academic writing difficulties faced by postgraduate international students were not surface errors as it was presumed, rather, postgraduate students’ academic writing difficulties were mostly in regards to meaning and organisation in academic writing. The study gave participants the chance to learn about a learning community and its uses. Further, the learning community helped participants in identifying their academic writing difficulties, and improve their confidence. It was found that fields of study differ in their view of academic writing. Further, the stage of the participants’ study was critical in their participation and needs. Though some of the participants joined the learning community as a favour, but continued as they gained and established a relationship with other participants and the facilitators. Another major need of the participants was getting feedback. Numerous studies have emphasised the relationship between beliefs in academic agency and academic performance (Yeperen, 2006). This research also emphasised the need for a learning community and assistant for PhD students to help them with their academic writing, and with their confidence. The results gained from action research can be used both in practical and theoretical sense (Zuber-Skerritt, 2011). Supervisors would have a better knowledge and understanding of errors make and inform them of their needs. Universities and policy makers could also have a better understanding of postgraduates needs during their academic writing and make necessary changes to assist learning.

Abdulkareem, M. N. (2013). An investigation study of academic writing problems faced by Arab postgraduate students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Theory & Practice in Language Studies, 3(9). Al Badi, I. A. H. (2015). Academic writing difficulties of ESL learners. The 2015 WEI international academic conference proceedings, Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (2007). Research for education: An introduction to theories and methods. Bruton, A. (2009). Designing research into the effects of grammar correction in L2 writing: Not so straightforward. Journal of Second Language Writing, 18(2), 136-140. Gallagher, S. (2000). Philosophical conceptions of the self: implications for cognitive science. Trends in cognitive sciences, 4(1), 14-21. Glassman, M., Erdem, G., & Bartholomew, M. (2013). Action research and its history as an adult education movement for social change. Adult Education Quarterly, 63(3), 272-288. Haggard, P., & Chambon, V. (2012). Sense of agency. Current Biology, 22(10), R390-R392. Hon, N., Seow, Y.-Y., & Pereira, D. (2018). Outside influence: The sense of agency takes into account what is in our surroundings. Acta psychologica, 186, 104-109. Kemmis, S., & McTaggart, R. (2005). Communicative action and the public sphere. The Sage handbook of qualitative research, 3, 559-603. Kern, R. G. (1995). Students' and teachers' beliefs about language learning. Foreign Language Annals, 28(1), 71-92. Livingstone, K., Campus, T., Turkeyen, E. C. D., & America, S. (2011). Computers and their suitability for second and foreign language error correction. Baraton Interdisciplinary Research Journal 1 (2), 66-78. Odena, O., & Burgess, H. (2017). How doctoral students and graduates describe facilitating experiences and strategies for their thesis writing learning process: a qualitative approach. Studies in higher education, 42(3), 572-590. Smith, M. K. (2003). Communities of practice. The encyclopedia of informal education. Stake, R. E. (2006). Stake, Robert E., Multiple Case Study Analysis. New York: Guilford, 2006. Synofzik, M., Vosgerau, G., & Newen, A. (2008). Beyond the comparator model: a multifactorial two-step account of agency. Consciousness and cognition, 17(1), 219-239. Van Lier, L. (2006). The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective (Vol. 3). Springer Science & Business Media. Yang, Y., & Williamson, J. (2011). A Cross-cultural Study of Learning Communities in Academic and Business Contexts. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 5(9). Zuber-Skerritt, O. (2011). Action leadership: Towards a participatory paradigm (Vol. 6). Springer science & business media.