ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relatively unexplored core of academic teachers' work as they engage with students' written texts but without viewing such solitary and even lonely practices in isolation from the institutional contexts in which they take place. An overriding theme emerging in academic teachers' perspectives was a sense of practice around student texts as "labour-intensive" and entailing "a lot of time", effort and "psychological energy". The role of institutional context and individual role within that context, as it permeates the minute-to-minute practices of academics with students' texts, emerged from the study as it brought to light huge variation from one participant to another. What is 'routine' in some contexts is not 'routine' in others or for other individuals. The chapter explores the influence of institutional context clearly in shaping particular practices and decisions.
