Conceptualizing research writing as a form of research literacy, in this paper we explore how a group of Lithuanian scholars, collaborating with international researchers, engaged in developing research literacies for conducting a complex longitudinal research project guided by interactional ethnographic epistemology.
Scholarly publishing is dominated by the English language (Altbach, 2002; Aydinli & Mathews, 2000; Salager-Meyer, 2008) and scholars from non-English-dominant countries often have to learn the English academic writing genres and research literacy practices (Duszak & Lewkowicz, 2008). Conceptualizing research writing as a form of research literacy, in this paper we explore how a group of Lithuanian scholars, collaborating with international researchers, engaged in developing research literacies for conducting a complex longitudinal research project guided by interactional ethnographic epistemology.
We focus on actors, activities, and opportunities for learning research literacies that Lithuanian scholars and their international colleagues constructed in the context of developing and engaging in a EU-funded four year research grant that seeks to enhance researcher capacities to conduct innovative research while participating in a project aimed at improving health care specialist education to work with people with disabilities. We draw on an archive of research records that includes project documents, audio and video recordings of researcher interactions and research seminars, presentations on writing for international publication, and records of Lithuanian researcher participation in international networks. Domain, taxonomic, and discourse analyses revealed the linguistic and sociohistorical challenges of learning research literacies in Lithuania. The analyses also made visible the varied textual and interpersonal practices in which Lithuanian scholars, in collaboration with others, engaged to create opportunities for developing and/or enhancing research literacies and participating in international research networks. Analyses of literacy practices and activities around research learning in Lithuania provides a telling case for ways scholars from other non-English-dominant countries could engage in research literacy learning to join international networks and to transcend the sociohistorical and linguistic challenges in the local context.
