Discussions of student writing in (mainly traditional) universities have highlighted tensions between hegemonic expectations and more participatory writing practices which could better serve an increasingly diverse student population. Our paper extends this discussion in an investigation of writing in vocational disciplines. Based in a teaching-intensive university in the UK, our ethnographically informed data collection activities include focus groups with post-compulsory teacher educator colleagues and an auto-ethnographic examination of student writing tutorials, providing a detailed insider perspective and contributing to understanding of academic literacies in vocational disciplines. We argue that the above two-way tension (hegemonic-academic versus dialogic-participatory) is complexified in practice-based fields by the values of the professional domain, which constitute a third set of writing practices towards which lecturers (and students) are drawn. This can amplify the constraints on developing participatory approaches, but may also offer opportunities for lecturers to align their academic and professional values and practices to better support students’ writing development. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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