Staff development in a climate of economic rationalism: A profile of the academic staff developer

Abstract

This paper emerged from the findings of a study investigating the efficacy of a staff development programme, called TRAC (Teaching, Reflection and Collaboration), offered through Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Participants in this study indicated an express need for academic staff developers to foster a range of skills when seeking to implement exemplary staff development programmes. One of the most crucial skills stipulated by participants was the ability for staff developers to offer development opportunities which effectively cater to the current hectic, competitive and outcome‐driven climate academics face. Other skills considered by participants to be pivotal for the development and implementation of exemplary staff development programmes included well‐developed human relation and interpersonal skills, facilitative skills and skills in co‐ordinating and networking.

This paper begins by ‘setting the scene’, briefly outlining the TRAC programme and the author's research experience of this programme. Subsequently, it discusses the skills required of the developer instigating such a programme. In doing this, it aims to encourage developers to reflect on the efficacy of their own skills with a view to making appropriate changes. Thus, in attempting to trigger change in developers’ practice, this paper represents a vehicle for ‘development of the developers.’     

A case study of academic staff integration in a post-merger Chinese university

The aim of this study was to discover and better understand through a case study, the phenomenon of academic staff integration in a post-merger Chinese university. The analysis was undertaken by using a cultural framework derived from relevant literature. The results indicate that adjustments to academic values and beliefs, the cultural dimension, are crucial in the integration process. This study also identified factors, which could affect academic staff integration, such as leadership, organisational objectives, regulations, geographic division, and cultural differences. Being aware of these factors could provide university managers with useful guidelines on how to facilitate the integration of academic staff members from different pre-merger institutions.     

Promotion of academic staff

Research studies conducted in the USA, Britain, Australia and New Zealand which examine academic staff's attitude to the promotion procedures in their institutions have all found dissatisfaction with existing promotion practices. In particular academics are reported to be dissatisfied with the undervaluing of teaching excellence in promotion decisions.This paper discusses studies of job satisfaction and staff motivation as background to an interview study at an Australian university. Data concerning promotion issues from interviews with 104 academic staff members are presented and discussed.Interviewed staff at that university see their institution as actively encouraging research through rewards and incentives. But they perceive the university as paying only lip-service to teaching by requiring documentation of teaching performance without rewarding good performance adequately. Many also perceive the university as interested more in publications than in scholarship and some adjust their activities accordingly.     

The Staff Conference: A Medium for Staff Development

Solihull's development of delegated budgets began in 1981. The experiences of schools and Centre led to the acceptance by Council in 1987 of a scheme for general implementation. The detailed scheme is included in an Appendix to the article, together with examples of vital financial management systems. In his article, the Director of Education explores the effects of delegation of the budget, and with it, the decision‐making process. The school heads’ role gains the natural extension of facility to implement management decisions, but what of the role of the Centre?     

A distributed model for managing academic staff in an international online academic programme

Online delivery of programmes of Higher Education typically involves a distributed community of students interacting with a single university site, at which the teachers, learning resources and administration of the programme are located. The alternative model, of a fully “Virtual University”, which assumes no physical campus, poses problems of resource provision, recognition, and accreditation. We describe here an intermediate solution, based on an established on-ground university, but in which both students and teachers are distributed worldwide. We discuss the issues of management, communication, and quality assurance that are faced in implementing this fully distributed model. We describe the solutions we have applied in a wholly online programme of Higher Education which is delivered to over 2,000 graduate students in more than 100 countries by a worldwide pool of instructors.     

Development of professional culture for academic staff and students by European projects

The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of University of Miskolc has been involved in six European Union Tempus projects since 1991, with the objectives of upgrading academics, modernizing laboratories and introducing new curricula, courses and up-to-date teaching methods in order to approach EU university standards. Microelectronics, electrical drives in automation, mechatronics, energy engineering, PhD engineering programmes in English and telecommunications were focused by the projects. One hundred and thirtytwo Miskolc students prepared their diploma theses at EU universities and academics could spend 1100 weeks within the mobility scheme at EU universities. To enlarge the European dimension and prepare academic staff, students and engineers working in industry, two Jean Monnet projects for European integration studies were also awarded.     

Allocation of academic staff in universities

This article is concerned with allocation of academic staff between departments in a university. The article considers general principles of staff allocation and then goes on to consider specific techniques for university staff allocation. Practical problems likely to be associated with implementing the results of a given method of staff allocation are also discussed. Finally the question of decentralised decision-making and possibility of allowing some freedom of choice between appointment of academic staff and other resources is considered.     

简谈学术成果评定中存在的问题与对策

本文对学术成果评定中存在的问题进行了概括和总结，学术成果评定中应把握好的几关提出几点建议，尽可能使评定工作更加科学、公正、合理。     

Juggling competing activities: academic staff as doctoral candidates

ABSTRACT

This article explores the experiences of a group of established academic staff in New Zealand and the UK, as they undertake a doctorate in their home institutions. Our interest is in how individuals negotiate this dual status from a cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) stance that explores how rules, tools, community and divisions of labour, and interacting activity systems, shape doctoral experiences. The focus in this article, having analysed their detailed narrative accounts, is on how academics experience three interdependent activity systems: those surrounding the thesis, the institutional context, and the home-life spheres. Issues related to time, workload and supervision issues, variability in collegial support and impact on personal priorities and time emerged. There is a range of particularities – from easy access to resources/supervisors to inflexible institutional regulations – applicable to this group of doctoral candidates. Negotiating life as an academic with concurrent doctoral candidature provides positive outcomes in terms of teaching, research confidence and general personal and professional development. However, a range of difficulties can also be encountered, particularly in relation to personal and professional relationships, and workload management.     

Job satisfaction among academic staff: An international perspective

This study examined aspects of academics'satisfaction with theirjob across the eight nations (Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico,Sweden, UK, USA). Interesting patterns emerged across countries reflectingdifferences in the international academic climate. The study also exploredpatterns of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction more closely for theAustralian data, and examined the impact of context elements, includingworking climate and atmosphere, on general levels of job satisfaction.Results indicated that factors related to the environment in which academicswork, including university atmosphere, morale, sense of community, andrelationships with colleagues, are the greatest predictors of jobsatisfaction. Implications for university management and governing bodiesare discussed.     

Portfolio appraisal: In search of criteria

Two inherently contradictory forces are pushing for reform in portfolio assessment. On the one hand there is a felt need for creating more rigid standards that operate to promote uniformity of ratings in appraisal practice to certify achievement. However, on the other hand, critical questions are being raised about separating acclaimed portfolio goals aimed both at appraising achievement while also improving quality of student learning and development. The position of portfolio assessment, which is widely used nowadays in teaching and teacher education, comes into debate. In our study, we look for actual practices in portfolio appraisal in search of criteria used for rating the quality of portfolio materials. It is our interest to find out how appraisal criteria are selected and used to evaluate achievement or to improve the quality of development and learning. In the context of teacher education, we have examined both the espoused criteria of both assessors and collectors of portfolios as well as the actual appraisal practices by looking at the judgmental orientations and supervision styles used by portfolio assessors. In addition, we offered an authentic portfolio document to be rated by different assessors to gauge and compare their quality of rating and criteria use. The actual processes we detected point to a most common practice of employing judgmental, usually normative evaluations based on assessor dependent, more or less pre-decided criteria which permit a “checkbox” approach to appraisal.     

International academic staff in UK higher education: campus internationalisation and innovation in academic practice

Abstract

Amidst opportunities for universities to consider international academic staff in supporting internationalisation and innovation in academic practice, there is very little research to provide insights into their attitudes towards institutional approaches and frameworks in place to enable this. This article focuses on this research gap, suggesting that this academic community might enhance the development of internationally-informed and innovative pedagogic practice. The research reported within the article constitutes a preliminary study, set within a UK higher education case study setting. Methods included focus groups and themed in-depth interviews with a sample of 34 international academic staff from over 15 countries. The findings and discussion provide insights into the perspectives and experiences of international academic staff in relation to the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning and other institutional practice. Innovative pedagogic practice as enabled by international academic staff is discussed, as are approaches to the internationalisation of the curricula. The findings are relevant to the UK higher education context but also to the global context: academic institutions need to consider whether curriculum and processes are limited and limiting in favour of a narrow cultural lens.     

Legitimizing Black academic failure: deconstructing staff discourses on academic success,appearance and behaviour

The continued lower academic attainment of Black (especially Black Caribbean) pupils is now well established. Yet, to date there has been no single coherent national Government strategy that has successfully closed the gap in educational attainment between either Black and White pupils or between Black pupils and the national average. Academic and policy debates centring on the causes and potential ways of addressing this gap remain marred by controversy and disagreement. This paper is based on qualitative research, which explores how staff and pupils at an inner city secondary school in the south of England construct academic success. Focusing on one aspect of the findings, it reveals that staff subscribe to two forms of success: an inclusive, low D to G grade success and an exclusive, high A? to C grade success, each of which are seen as attainable only by certain types of pupils. The appearance and behaviour of Black pupils, particularly those engaged in what is termed ‘Black street culture’, are seen as directly at odds with the aims of the school and therefore minimize their likelihood of attaining success in exclusive terms.     

An exploratory study on academic staff perception towards blended learning in higher education

Education and Information Technologies - As the years progresses, higher education has move towards implementing Blended Learning (BL) which is a combination of face-to-face and online mode of...     

Research cultures in English and Scottish university education departments: An exploratory study of academic staff perceptions

The paper reports the findings of a small‐scale qualitative investigation into academic staff perceptions of research cultures across 10 English and Scottish university education departments. The study sheds light on four interrelated issues: the nature of research cultures, perceived facilitators, perceived constraints and the emotional landscape of working within a research environment. The findings indicate that perceptions vary according to staff academic and scientific capital, largely determined by career background and the type of university institution in which they work. While there is evidence of a culture of performativity and intensification, there is also evidence of widespread commitment to (and enjoyment of) educational research, especially where its value is broadly conceived to include outputs of applied research (including action research) as well as basic and strategic research. It is concluded that a broader policy conception of what constitutes value in research, coupled with a deeper understanding of the complex social and emotional factors that impact on academic well‐being, will be important to building both commitment and long‐term research capacity.     

Staff Development Programmes in Universities: A Curriculum Proposal

This paper suggests the basis for a successful staff development programme in universities using a “concerns‐based” model. It argues for a deliberative approach to staff development where the concerns of academic staff determine the strategies adopted. Such an approach is multi‐dimensional and dynamic. By incorporating a continuous arid deliberate reflective process it can accommodate a wide range of strategies and adaptations as needs change and develop. In these terms the traditional staff development programme based on a narrow “objectives” model is rejected because it fails to take contextual factors adequately into account and is unable to adapt continuously to changing circumstances. The argument is illustrated by reference to a programme based on this model at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.     

Factors influencing research performance of university academic staff

The application of performance based criteria in the allocation of resources and the targeting of substantial research funds to topics of national priority are two major features of the new research funding climate in Australian higher education. Successful competition for such funds will depend on universities developing and implementing appropriate research management plans and on the overall research performance of their academic staff. This paper reports the views of academic staff from one Australian university on such issues as the determinants of research performance and the importance of individual autonomy in the selection of research topics. One of the main findings is that research activity is highly variable and influenced by a number of factors including, personal characteristics; differences in research styles, methods and strategies both within and between disciplines; and dependence on funding. The findings show that academics firmly believe in freedom of inquiry in the choice of research topic.     

The scholarship of teaching: A comparison of conceptions held by experts and regular academic staff

Over the past decade the scholarship ofteaching has received considerable attention inthe higher education literature as a reactionto the widely cited Carnegie Foundation'sreport ``Scholarship Reconsidered'; however, theconcept has remained devoid of a unifieddefinition. A recent Delphi study conductedwith a selective group of scholars whoseexpertise lies in the area of universityteaching and learning indicated the extent towhich these ``experts' agreed with each other onimportant features and unresolved issues theyassociate with the scholarship of teaching. Building on the results of the Delphi study,the present article discusses the results of asecond survey comparing these ``experts' 'conceptions with those of a larger group ofscholars whose expertise lies in a differentacademic field (``regular academic staff'), inorder to identify the similarities anddifferences in the conceptions of thescholarship of teaching held by each of the twogroups. While regular academic staff werefound to associate the scholarship of teachingmore with good or effectiveteaching ``experts' pointed to notions such aspeer review and scholarly standards. Thediscussion of the results focuses on the notionof consensus reached within and betweenthe two groups. It is argued that in order topromote changes in policy with respect to whatis to count as scholarship, identifying andreporting ``experts' ' conceptions, thoughclearly necessary for promoting moreenlightened discussions on the issue, willremain insufficient. Policy change in academeis more likely to ensue as a result of thewider academic community reaching consensus onthe meaning, and nature, of the scholarship ofteaching. The wider academic community includes``experts', as well as colleagues in departmentsand disciplinary associations. The articleconcludes by exploring the notion of consensusthrough the lens of critical social theory.