Student-staff partnerships in academic development: the course design studio as a model for sustainable course-wide impact

ABSTRACT

Sector-wide research has shown the benefits of student-staff partnerships in course design whilst highlighting the complexity of this work, and the difficulties in gaining traction to create sustained ways of working. Reflections by academic developers on the roles and partnerships in course design at one Australian university reveal the critical three-way partnership among academic developers, students, and academics. The benefits brought by a Course Design Studio model in providing a liminal space to sustain positive three-way collaborations are outlined. This paper offers a conceptual argument that addresses areas of concern often encountered in traditional course design student-staff partnership relationships.     

‘Feedback interpreters’: the role of learning development professionals in facilitating university students’ engagement with feedback

Understanding how students engage with assessment feedback is a key concern of higher education professionals. Research commonly represents the perspectives of students and academic staff, yet little consideration is given to the role of learning development staff, despite these individuals supporting students when interpreting and implementing feedback. We report the findings from interviews with learning developers working in a UK University, exploring their insights into the barriers students confront when engaging with feedback, and into the role of learning developers within the feedback landscape. This study suggests that, while many challenges exist for staff and students in the context of assessment feedback, learning development professionals are able to provide a meaningful source of guidance, in partnership with academic staff, and are able to promote students’ development through dialogic interactions. Hitherto these interactions have not been fully explored, yet they provide powerful insight into the hidden processes of feedback recipience.     

The role of academic developers in embedding high-impact undergraduate research and inquiry in mainstream higher education: twenty years’ reflection

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the role of academic developers in supporting and influencing undergraduate research and inquiry, a high-impact activity. We examine the levels at which academic developers can influence undergraduate research and inquiry practices by distinguishing between staff and student practices; disciplinary and departmental practices and policies; institutional practices and policies; and national and international practices and policies. Drawing on our experiences over the last 20 years, we discuss the widening of academic development practice and consider who are the academic developers when it comes to embedding undergraduate research and inquiry in mainstream higher education.     

Faculty Liaisons: an embedded approach for enriching teaching and learning in higher education

This paper explores the experiences of a group of academic developers who support educational development work as Faculty Liaisons at a large, research-intensive university. These academic developers inhabit complex ‘third spaces’, providing support through an embedded partnership relationship that requires lateral movement across functional and organizational boundaries to create new professional spaces, knowledge, and relationships. The authors utilize narrative inquiry and auto-ethnographic approaches to present an interpretive qualitative analysis of their experiences supporting Faculty and University projects across complex and evolving organizational boundaries. From this analysis, they highlight key roles and responsibilities associated with their blended context and identify challenges that academic developers who occupy third spaces within academic organizations face as they negotiate competing interests, identities, and requirements associated with the diverse range of their projects and the blended experience of working in scholarly and administrative, central- and Faculty-based roles. The lessons they have learned from these experiences will be of particular interest to academic developers who are experiencing the flux of change within higher education settings that are impacting teaching and learning practices both for faculty in the classroom and for those across the institution who support them.     

Academic developers and international collaborations: the importance of personal abilities and aptitudes

Academic developers are increasingly involved in international collaborations in learning and teaching. Many factors contribute to successful collaborations; we argue that the personal abilities and aptitudes of academic developers are one key element. Building trust and relationships are central to creating the networks at individual, group, and institutional levels that are essential for effective collaboration. There is limited literature on academic development in international collaborations and on its personal dimensions. We illustrate these ideas using a UK-Pakistan collaboration. Attention to the personal dimension is likely to be a key consideration for other academic developers working in international collaborations.     

The student–staff partnership movement: striving for inclusion as we push sectorial change

ABSTRACT

A growing number of practitioners are re-envisioning higher education through student–staff partnership. Such a culture shift toward partnership can only be achieved through collaborative efforts among academic developers, other faculty/staff, and students. Using evidence from literature and my own reflections, I map the ways this partnership movement is unfolding across contexts. In doing so, I hope to provide a sense of camaraderie for practitioners in outlining how individual practices contribute to sectorial change, to question how we could be more inclusive in this movement, and to provide suggestions for expanding the movement in the future.     

Promoting and/or evading change: the role of student-staff partnerships in staff teaching development

ABSTRACT

While a large body of research considers factors enabling or constraining academic development in colleges and universities, comparatively little scholarship has considered the roles students might play in supporting positive change in staff teaching practices. This article explores one potential avenue by which such change might play out, considering the extent to which participation in a student-staff partnership programme supported by a central teaching and learning institute might encourage shifts in staff teaching. Drawing on data gathered via focus groups and online reflective prompts, we find that participating in pedagogical partnership can support a range of developments in staff teaching practices, though these changes might not always be pronounced or uniformly positive. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Promoting a culture of scholarship among educational developers: exploring institutional opportunities

Educational developers tend to be located in centres and units of teaching and learning outside the academic mainstream. They have little opportunity to engage in scholarship. Through an overview of the literature on educational development and educational professional roles and responsibilities, the author suggests that promoting a culture of scholarship among educational developers will contribute significantly towards their pedagogical professional development. It will enhance the quality of professional consultation between educational developers and academic staff in the faculties. The discussion concludes with suggestions for implementing innovative strategies to promote a culture of scholarship within the higher education academic mainstream.     

Rethinking our underlying assumptions about what we do and why we do it: academic development as a case

In this paper, academic developers from universities in three countries explore underlying assumptions about what we as developers do and why we do it in relation to evaluating development programs. Through addressing three questions, key ideas emerge that highlight what is often overlooked in day-to-day practice: the fact that academic development has a ‘signature pedagogy’ defined by the ‘learning paradigm’; the potential role of different stakeholders in setting criteria for evaluation; and the inclusion of non-traditional academic development literatures (e.g., adult education, educational change, organizational development) to avoid perpetuating established practices. Our intent is to intellectually challenge ourselves and others to move beyond sharing program and evaluation activities to explore ideas and literature not often considered in our day-to-day work. While the context is academic development, we believe the questions and the answers that emerged are of value to all involved in staff and professional development.     

How might we better design support for postdocs?

Abstract

Internationally, career prospects for postdocs, whether salaried on a Principal Investigator’s (PI) grant or a fellowship, are precarious. Yet, many aspire to permanent research-teaching positions, and to achieve this goal they often strive to gain PI funding to demonstrate their research potential. Like many developers in research-intensive universities, we are responsible for supporting postdocs. Yet, it was unclear what actual support they needed. Further, studies show postdocs seldom access formal institutional support. Thus, we undertook a needs assessment. We describe here our substantive learning about supporting aspiring and new PIs, and then reflect more generally on the value of needs assessments in academic development practice.     

Do academic developers’ conceptions support an integrated academic practice? A comparative case study from Hong Kong and Singapore

ABSTRACT

Academic development (AD) is increasingly being oriented towards an integrated approach to academic practice (AP), given arguments for the importance of integrating research, learning, and teaching. Given the complex and evolving character of AD as a profession, it is important to understand the conceptions of AD held by academic developers, who can play a key role in supporting conditions for such integration. This comparative case study explores conceptions of AD and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) held by academic developers at two universities in Hong Kong and Singapore, and examines the extent to which these conceptions support an integrated AP. The findings show that not all conceptions recognise the importance of integration; moreover, though in both cases aspects of integration come to the fore, there are gaps that militate against a fuller understanding of integrating teaching and research. The study has implications for future AD practice and raises questions about using SoTL as a means of fostering teaching and research integration.     

Developing teaching and changing organisational culture through grass-roots leadership

Much of the literature relating to organisational change within academic departments focusses upon the role of the academic leader in creating an appropriate environment and process for change. Often scant attention is paid to the role of other individuals in impeding or facilitating change. This paper provides a case study of teaching development and change based in considerations of organisational culture as conceptualised by Schein (1985). It details the strategies used by a small group of junior academics to challenge the existing organisational culture and, through a focus on teaching improvement, achieve personal reward, organisational growth and the creation of a new but complemtary organisational culture. From the case study is drawn a list of key factors of relevance to academics or staff developers interested in initiating or supporting a grass-roots movement for change.     

Wise academic development: learning from the ‘failure’ experiences of retired academic developers

ABSTRACT

Informed by Constructive Developmental Theory and the Threshold Concepts Framework, we interviewed retired academic developers from four continents and asked them to describe their processes of learning from perceived failures and how they see the role of academic developers in supporting academics through failures. Findings regarding participants’ definitions of failure, ways of making sense of and learning from failure, and recommendations for supporting academic colleagues’ learning from failure are shared through tables, quotations, and poetry. Findings show that ‘wise academic development’ embraces curiosity about failure, integrates the (sometimes) transformative nature of failure, shares the load of sense-making, and cultivates connectedness.     

Family portrait: a profile of educational developers around the world

Educational development (also called academic or faculty development) has been described as fragmented, disconnected, and a ‘family of strangers,’ due mostly to the different academic backgrounds of its members. In this paper, the authors report on a survey of over 1000 educational developers from 38 countries on six continents. To help the field gain a clearer picture of itself at the international level, the authors provide a profile of developers’ demography, institutional locations, academic backgrounds, and current roles, and discuss the implications for educational development as a field and developers as a community.     

The chameleon on a tartan rug: adaptations of three academic developers’ professional identities

This paper builds on discussions of academic developers’ identity experienced as a discomfiting, troubled, and often marginal space. Three experienced academic developers, located in research-intensive institutions in three different countries, using auto-ethnographic writing and a shared narrative inquiry, explore moments of congruence and conflict. While there are elements that sustain them in their job, the categorisation of their role can impact on their ability to do their job, undermining their credibility. This can prevent them from engaging in research that could enrich practice in their institutions and inform institutional strategy or change the culture in teaching and learning. Instead they are forced into discomfit: having to defend their right to be involved in the institutional discussions. The most worrying issue is the pervasive trend in the change of academic developers’ status (from tenure-track academic peers to professionals).     

Teaching philosophies reconsidered:A conceptual model for the development and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements

Increasingly, the requirements of applicants to academic faculty positions, promotion and tenure procedures, nominations for teaching awards, or other application processes for innovative teaching grants worldwide include a teaching portfolio or dossier or a statement of teaching philosophy. Current literature provides a spectrum of approaches to constructing a teaching philosophy statement. While these resources provide practical utility, this literature generally lacks conceptual models that provide clear operational definitions and comprehensive frameworks for the process of generating or evaluating a teaching philosophy statement. However, this literature does illustrate the complexity of the task. Each teaching philosophy statement reflects not only personal beliefs about teaching and learning, but also disciplinary cultures, institutional structures and cultures, and stakeholder expectations as well. This synergy among self, discipline, and institutional context guided the development of a conceptual model for constructing a teaching philosophy statement. Based on the authors' survey of the literature, a conceptual model was developed, and then refined in a series of three workshops that included input from graduate students, academic faculty, faculty developers, and academic managers (administrators). The resulting conceptual framework includes the six dimensions commonly found in a survey of faculty teaching philosophies: the purpose of teaching and learning; the role of the teacher; the role of the student; the methods used; evaluation and assessment of teaching and learning; and also includes two framing devices - a metaphor or a critical incident and a device for acknowledging the impact that contextual factors have on teacher decision making. This paper describes the development of this conceptual model, and provides an evaluation rubric that can be applied to assess teaching philosophy statements generated using the proposed framework.     

Student-faculty partnership in explorations of pedagogical practice: a threshold concept in academic development

Student-faculty partnerships position students as informants, participants, and change agents in collaboration with faculty members. Enacting one form of such collaboration, Bryn Mawr College’s SaLT program pairs faculty members and undergraduate students in explorations of pedagogical practice. The program provides both context and case study for this form of Student-faculty partnership as a threshold concept in academic development. Like all threshold concepts, the notion of Student-faculty partnership is troublesome, transformative, irreversible, and integrative. This article draws on faculty reflections to explore what constitutes this threshold, the insights and practices that are possible if faculty cross it, and implications for academic developers.     

Knowing me,knowing you: UK and Japanese academic developer identities at two research-intensive institutions

In 2004, Ray Land produced extensive literature on the 12 orientations of academic developers. These orientations provided academic developers with a useful tool through which they have been able to better articulate their roles and their place in academia. We have used the orientations model to establish, compare, and contrast the identity of sixteen academic developers from the UK and from Japan. The findings reveal that research is a key orientation recognised by both groups, although is expressed differently by academic developers from the two countries. The political strategist orientation was considered important amongst managers irrespective of their cultural backgrounds.     

Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable: a narrative account of becoming an academic developer

This article uses a narrative retelling of my journey to academic development to offer a new insight into induction initiatives: alongside a critical commitment to student learning, new academic developers need to build an informed and scholarly ‘idea of the university’. As universities renew focus on teaching and learning, student retention, and success, there is a corollary increase in new academic developers. Newcomers need a full picture of the field; induction that focuses on the narrow institutional context and aspects of best practice is unlikely to fully prepare new academic developers for tensions they may encounter.