Widening Participation Practitioners Write!

This chapter considers the role of writing for widening participation practitioners working in higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and the potential of practitioner writing to inform practice as well as inform and reframe policy. The Office for Students’ (OfS) focus on evaluation and impact together with the nascent Evidence and Impact Exchange (EIX) is firstly, an opportunity for the research and evaluation undertaken by practitioners to be recognised; and secondly, a driver for them to write for publication to inform policy and practice. However, to date, with two notable exceptions, the support for widening participation and equity practitioners to write has been limited. A review of the literature reveals the limited attention to practitioner writing in general, and absence of any attention to widening participation practitioners in particular. This lack of recognition and support led to the development of a small scale research study, which is currently in progress. The study aims to explore the extent to which writing is seen as part of professional practice. In addition to describing the methodological framework and data collection methods adopted by the study, consideration is given to the challenges of engaging with this vibrant and increasingly diverse community of practice.