KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION IN INDONESIAN UNIVERSITIES: THE ROLE OF LITERACIES IN RESEARCH WRITING PRODUKSI PENGETAHUAN DI PERGURUAN TINGGI INDONESIA: KAJIAN PENULISAN ILMIAH Ibrar Bhatt, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, and Udi Samanhudi, Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, Indonesia Thursday 11th August 2022, 16:00 WIB / 10:00 BST

1. Knowledge production in Indonesian
universities: Literacies and research writing
Dr Ibrar Bhatt
Senior Lecturer (Queen’s University Belfast, UK)
Follow me on twitter: @ibrar_bhatt
ResearchGate
i.bhatt@qub.ac.uk
Dr Udi Samanhudi
Senior Lecturer (Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa)
Thursday 11th August 2022
Graduate School of Universitas Negeri Jakarta
Indonesia

2. Reflect on:
1) When you wrote your first piece of academic writing. What has changed over time?
2) What you enjoy and dislike most about academic writing
3) What you think it means to be a productive academic.
4) How you usually collaborate with other academic writers
5) How you are learning to write as an academic
6) How your social media use connects with your writing, if at all.
7) If you are an international academic and what that means.

3. Ibrar’s last visit to UNTIRTA in 2017
where this project idea began
Ibrar’s prior work on
‘Academics Writing’
Udi’s doctoral thesis on academic
discourse in Indonesia
Building on…

4. Context
HE Policy & expectation in Indonesian Higher Education
Directives from Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture (‘Kemdikbud’, previously
‘Ristekdikti’) on academic productivity
Indonesian academics now have to manage their own research writing and are judged
professionally on their outputs
Focus on ‘scopus journals’ as a proxy for quality
Massive changes to academic professional work and identity
A pressing need to examine the context, and broader lessons for ‘global south’ academics
Changing career structures, award systems & work patterns – in private and public institutions

5. Literacy, social practice & academic work
If we are to understand the culture of writing in the professional lives of academics in
Indonesia, and what they need to know to be able to thrive in their transforming
workplaces, we have to think about academic writing beyond a skills-based notion
A ‘social practice’ perspective on literacy - Literacy is understood as being “rooted in
conceptions of knowledge, identity, being” (Street, 2005, 417)
Linking closely with the related field of academic literacies (e.g. Lillis & Scott, 2015)
See also Tusting et al’s (2019) study of nine research sites across three universities in
England

6. A project on academics writing in
Indonesia
A cross-disciplinary (including STEM, Arts & Humanities, and Business doctorates)
sample of twenty-four Indonesian academics.
How Indonesian academics are learning to write as academics and where systems of
support can be better targeted
The extent to which their doctoral experience is/was a sufficient enough apprenticeship
This research asks: 1. How is knowledge produced and disseminated through the writing
practices of Indonesian academics? 2. How are digital technologies shaping these
writing practices? 3. How is doctoral training shaping and supporting writing work? 4.
How are international scholarly identities produced and shaped by these writing
practices?

7. Methodology (1)
Sample:
A total of 22 Indonesian academics across both public and private universities in
different part of Indonesia. All either doctoral students or had recently graduated
(maximum five years since) from research intensive universities, thereby qualifying as
‘early career’ academics who are either ‘doctoral’ or ‘immediately postdoctoral’
Phase 1: Interviews focussing on academic writing histories, academic writing futures
Phase 2: Follow up interviews upon collection of writing samples
Phase 3 (n=10): Videographic recording of writing (recorded and video logged - see Bhatt
2017 for overview)
All participants were subject to phase 1 and phase 2: Today’s presentation focuses
mostly on this data only

9. Data analysis
Transcribed and anonymised
Returned to participant
Thematic coding
Dominant themes for today’s paper:
i. How writing is a means of becoming international;
ii. How knowledge is produced through writing practices;
iii. How writing for publication is learned;
iv. How this relates to respondents’ expectations during doctoral training.

10. Becoming International
I am not that international, because I do not have many opportunities to work together. So now
I am focussing on Mandarin, and working more with Asian academics. International for me
means talking in the same language. (Girindra, Linguistics, public university)
To me an international academic is someone who is invited to teach or speak, as plenary
speaker, in different universities and publishes in international journals. Being international in
this way is important, as my university is pushing us to be visiting professors overseas. (Nuri,
Education, public university)
Being international means: “Doing scientific collaboration with international institutions. To this
day, I have not achieved this” [Munir, Geophysics, public university]
I can connect with Japanese and Australian academics that I want to work with, but some
disasters only happen in our country, for example Merapi Mountain is a unique type of volcano,
and we have the specialist knowledge, but without the resources and technology that the
Japanese and Australians have [Suyanto, Physics, public university]

11. Becoming International
Writing and publishing are integral to becoming
international
Participants aim to publish their work in internationally
renowned journals and expand possibilities for networking
with scholars overseas
Unhealthy focus on Scopus database as a proxy for high
quality
‘Becoming international’ is bound up with Indonesia’s role as an important
player amongst SE Asian economies
Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
Connecting and collaborating is pinned on the expectations of
doctorate programmes

12. Collaboration & Co-authorship
A collaborator plays a role as a reader who checks the clarity and alignment of my
writing … and giving feedback on the quality of writing [Lisa, Education, public
university]
I started collaborating and co-authoring during my PhD. My supervisor really shaped my
academic writing in Australia. After my PhD I published two papers with her. Since then,
I have collaborated with a fellow PhD student when I was at ***. He helped me improve
in writing during the PhD and we are now writing something together. I prefer working
with people I know well [Nuri, Education, public university]
I would like to work with academics who have at least associate professor status [Tio,
accounting, private university]

13. Collaboration & Co-authorship
Distinction between collaborating and co-authoring; one a path to the other
Co-authoring intrinsically connected to mentoring; some choosing only to work with
more senior writers
The practice of co-authoring is better carried out with students and serve teaching
purposes

14. The role of the doctorate
A great amount of indirect expectation for the doctorate process - expectations of
doctorates are firmly intertwined with professional expectations
A doctoral degree program overseas primarily offers international networking and
mentoring opportunities
Research collaboration work with supervisors who will help expand their network to
a broader scope and more substantive work
Expectation that the doctoral process will lead to further cooperation

15. The role of the doctorate
Doctoral research has given me more opportunity to interact, to discuss with different
academics, directly or indirectly [Budi, Linguistics, private university]
Through the doctorate, I can learn many things. I can learn how to deal with people,
how to communicate well, I can learn how to be a better researcher [Tio, Marketing,
private university]
Doctoral study provided me with opportunities to do a joint research with other doctoral
colleagues, and to work collaboratively with my supervisor writing for publication
purposes [Tina, Economics, public university]
In my department we have only one PhD. We need to improve the department and one
key is to increase the number of PhDs [Rio, Maths, private university]

16. Barriers & difficulties with writing
My university is lacking in the facilities for writing, like desks and rooms. Unlike in our economic
faculty where everyone has a desk…This would not happen in a private university [Lisa,
Education, public university]
A lack of funding and time for writing [Silvi, Biomedical Sciences, private university]
Private universities often give appreciation as financial rewards, higher than public universities.
This affects the productivity. We get this appreciation but it’s not the same amount. They also
have writing workshops and so I join them [Suyanto, Physics, public university]
My university does not run writing workshops; they only occasionally invite speakers to share
knowledge about writing, on ‘how to publish’ etc. The problem is we need a coach to supervise
our writing [Wayan, English Language Education, public university]
There is a high expectation of research quality in a public university; you are a ‘researcher’ rather
than simply being a ‘teacher’ in a private university [Tri, Computer Sciences, private university]

17. Social media for writing and engaging
It is important to see that my work is something that people need. So when I saw my
recent publication that had been read by 1000 people, for example, it’s the most
interesting thing [Erpin, Food Science, public university]
I join scheduled academic writing workshops and an academic writing group which
mentored by a credible Professor [Dina, Education, public university]
It doesn’t mean that social media is specific for friendship, but I sometimes use it for the
project and also the research. I try to connect with other researchers around the globe and
then try to chat with him or chat with her, then ask for references [Rio, Linguistics, private
university]
A peer of mine uses Facebook Notes to share reviews on the journals he reads. I learn a lot
from his writing. Through social media, I get access to publications which I can read to
improve my understanding of my own field. I listen to interviews on writers of academic
books, and it helps me a lot in gaining ideas for writing [Ranti, Maths, private university]

18. Learning to write as an academic
As a researcher, I feel that it’s a good environment in here. Because we have a lot of
support, not only from the supervisor. And I have also a huge amount of journal access.
[Dani, Food Nutrition, public university]
My sentences were too long, so I am now using ‘Grammarly’ and ‘Quillbot’ which have
helped me make my sentences more concise [Wayan, English Language Education, public
university]
The mistakes from previous submissions helped me to find what I should not repeat in
the next paper. For example, a paper was not in a good structure, or the figures were in
low resolution. I read the comments of the reviewers carefully and tried to improve
[Munir, Geophysics, public university]

19. Learning to write as an academic
Learning to write for publication – a
key goal embedded into the intentions
of doing the doctorate
Most of this learning was expected to
come from the supervisors!
Widespread practice of using Scopus
indexed journals as a proxy for quality
Not enough support, and little
indication of what it should look like
Varied conceptions of ‘critical thinking’
Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

20. Conclusions
Changing of practices, purposes and meanings
of academic work
Implications for public and private universities
Periphery within an existing periphery
Is the doctorate a suitable enough
apprenticeship for global HE?
Negotiating mandates with lack of support
More literacies to contend with…
A disjuncture between the needs of academics
and an old guard of university management

21. Implications
Academia is a globally interconnected network of institutions, people, and research
projects all involved in the work of knowledge production
The kinds of systems and structures in the UK system are now being introduced around
the world, especially on research assessment and productivity
Academics in the Global South and in emerging economies face particular resource
constraints and infrastructural problems that render their experience very unequal when
attempting to collaborate with partners based in Northern universities
Objective career success needs to be clearly defined
Writing mentorship and doctoral agreements

22. References
Bhatt, I. & Samanhudi, U. (2022). From academic writing to academics writing: Transitioning
towards literacies for research productivity. International Journal of Educational Research,
111, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2021.101917
Tusting, K., McCulloch, S. Bhatt, I. Hamilton, M. & Barton, D. (2019). The Dynamics of
Knowledge Creation: Academics Writing in the the Contemporary University. Routledge.
Bhatt, I. (2017). ‘Classroom digital literacies as interactional accomplishments’. In Researching
New Literacies: Design, Theory, and Data in Sociocultural Investigation, Knobel, M. and
Lankshear, C. (eds.), New York: Peter Lang. pp. 127-149 [link]