Towards Inclusion

Abstract

This study arose from my experiences of teaching primarily British-born BME students from WP backgrounds on an academic writing programme. A great deal of identity work appeared to be occurring in the classroom as the students underwent the transition into higher education. Much of the interaction was related to negotiating the practices of their peers, the academic community and their families. I have examined this by considering ways in which the students presented themselves in relation to their fellow undergraduates, their representations of the language and literacy practices of the academic community and their identifications with the languages in their lives. Throughout, I have considered how the interaction evoked gender as a dimension of identity. In this chapter, I aim to pull the threads of the discussion together by considering what my study might suggest about practice in contexts of linguistic and cultural diversity in higher education. My standpoint for this discussion is an imagining of higher education as a multilingual space.