Shared by Ann-Marie Eriksson on Oct 17, 2007. Last Updated on Nov 19, 2007.

Principal Investigator(s): Ann-Marie Eriksson, Centre for Language and Communication, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Co-Investigator(s): Ass Prof Åsa Mäkitalo and Prof Roger Säljö. Göteborg University, Sweden

For More Information: ann-marie.eriksson@chalmers.se

Keywords: writing, academic writing, argumentation, voice, multi-vocality, genre, disciplinary genre, WTL, WID, higher education, environmental engineering, socio-scientific issues

Permission to Cite: Please contact the Principal Investigator(s)

Abstract/Summary: This PhD project is a case study of writing and communication tasks carried out in an international MSc program at a Scandinavian University of Technology. As a pedagogical context for Master students in higher education, Environmental engineering offers an interesting and quite complex setting for an investigation of students’ production of texts and talk. To begin with, engineering education draws heavily on engineering as a professional discipline, including the different practices and writing traditions of this professional field. Secondly, environmental issues are constituted from multiple and conflicting knowledge traditions, voices and perspectives. They are negotiable and transitory, and come into existence through the way they are recognized and addressed through texts and talk. Thirdly, dealing with environmental issues as a student involved in an engineering course demands understanding of how those issues are approached for educational purposes within higher education, and also what it takes to be a successful student.