A Critical Approach to Overcoming Resistance to Academic Writing and Building Confidence in Third Level Students

Abstract

Abstract. This paper proposes an integrative writing strategy for incoming students in higher education and will take a tripartite approach encompassing the key aspects of resistance, confidence, and critical consciousness in higher education. Writing is central to the development and use of critical thinking in higher education, the challenge for us as educators is to overcome resistance from students to academic writing and build student confidence in their ability to engage in writing as a vehicle for reflection and interpretation. This can lead students to perceive a need for change in their world, their relationship, and attitudes, and to seek to change the attitudes of others, thus fostering the critical consciousness central to the pathway for progression from inequity to democracy in the classroom.