'Self-Efficacy Beliefs' in a Study of Academic Writing? An Investigation Into the Potential Usefulness of Bandura's Notion of 'Self-Efficacy Beliefs' for an Exploration Into the Relationships Between Five Women's Beliefs and Feelings About Their Writing Practices and Experiences in a Research Course in a UK Based University

McMullan, Jennifer (2012). 'Self-Efficacy Beliefs' in a Study of Academic Writing? An Investigation Into the Potential Usefulness of Bandura's Notion of 'Self-Efficacy Beliefs' for an Exploration Into the Relationships Between Five Women's Beliefs and Feelings About Their Writing Practices and Experiences in a Research Course in a UK Based University. MRes thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000f1c6

Abstract

This dissertation reports on a study aiming to explore the writing related beliefs and feelings of five women who are in the first year of a research qualification in a United Kingdom (UK) university. The study used a context rich methodology drawing on principles from ethnography and linguistics to explore the writing related beliefs and feelings of the women in the study through the lens of ‘self-efficacy beliefs’. ‘Talk-around-text’ interviews, which draw on the participants’ research-related written texts, are used to foreground the participants’ beliefs and feelings about their writing abilities. In addition, data in the form of a series of entries from personal ‘writing diaries’ are drawn on to provide information related to the participants’ beliefs and feelings about writing abilities while a written text is being worked on in the home. The study suggests that while Bandura’s notion of ‘self-efficacy beliefs’ facilitated an analytic gaze that foregrounded the participants’ beliefs and feelings about their writing abilities, the notion was limited because it did not account for other contextual features that frame writing, like the effects of finances, time or the physical environment.

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