Main picture: WiSP PI Theresa Lillis setting out the areas of social work writing
The WiSP team recently took part in a BAAL (British Association of Applied Linguistics) seminar organised by the newly established Special Interest Group on professional, academic and work-based literacies (PAWBL), held at The Open University campus in Milton Keynes. The day event took place on the 8th December 2017 and attracted around 45 participants from the UK, rest of Europe and beyond. The WiSP talk was delivered by PI Theresa Lillis and RA Alison Twiner and the chair of the advisory panel, Lucy Rai. A key focus was on how WiSP could provide practical insights into the three key domains where social work writing takes place: in higher education courses, in work placements and in everyday professional practice.
As a participant only, I had the luxury of listening, tweeting (#BAALPAWBL) and taking photos….
Picture: WiSP Research Associate Alison Twiner listing the datasets collected
Five local authorities, 70 social worker interviews, 10 weeks of observations and 4,600 texts….
These are among the datasets collected by the WiSP team as we approach the end of data collection on the project and move into analysis and dissemination. After 2 years of fieldwork, textwork and meetings, we are in the final stages of official time on the project (the WiSP project notionally ends in April 2018 but work will continue beyond this).
The talk set out the areas covered by WiSP (see above), the aims of the project (see http://www.writinginsocialwork.com/) and the state of progress so far. This presentation is the latest in a line of talks we have delivered on the project – see http://www.writinginsocialwork.com/publications-and-resources/ here for more.
The team are also working on several academic papers, further presentations and the end of project ESRC report.
In addition to WiSP, the seminar featured plenary talks on academic literacies (Jackie Tuck), students’ and academics’ literacy practices (respectively, Bojana Petric and Sharon McCulloch), and a range of additional short presentations. The work of the late Brian Street, a prominent figure in the field of writing research, was also commemorated.
For more information on the BAAL PAWBL sig, see the website: https://pawbl.wordpress.com/
Or follow us on Twitter: @BAALPAWBL, @OUWISP
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