A Dialogical Approach to the Teaching of Writing: The Perceptions and Experiences of Doctoral Students

This research focused on the experiences and perceptions of students as they participated in a dialogical approach to the teaching of writing in a doctoral program at a graduate school of education. This study sought to address existing gaps in the current literature related to how doctoral students acquire the writing practices and conventions of their discipline by exploring if a dialogically centered approach to the teaching of writing could facilitate the academic writing development of doctoral students. The researcher employed a Vygotskian sociocultural framework to writing development that placed dialogue and discussion at the core of classroom activity with the understanding that knowledge is dynamically constructed and constantly evolving through human interaction. The researcher adopted a case study research design combined with phenomenological elements to study how three students that self-identified as struggling with academic writing developed as they participated in semi-structured class discussions. Participants in the study perceived that engaging in dialogue with the professor and other students helped to develop their writing. Additionally, they were able to pinpoint refined elements of their writing as a result of participating in the discussions. Findings suggest that students may benefit from a multi-pronged dialogical approach to writing development where they are exposed to dialogue about writing in multiple settings and with multiple experts including professors, writing experts, and more capable peers.