REPORT ON
COLLOQUIUM
CONTEXTUAL APPROACHES TO
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
WTH REGARD
TO THE TEACHING ROLE
27 July
2015
Devon
Valley, Stellenbosch
1. INTRODUCTION
This
report provides an overview of the colloquium entitled “Contextual Approaches to Professional Development with regard to the
Teaching Role” held in Stellenbosch in July 2015.
1.1 The
purpose of the colloquium
As
explained in the welcome address by Brenda Leibowitz, the leader of the
Structure, Culture and Agency Research Project, the colloquium provided a forum
for delegates to consider issues related to research on professional academic
development in higher education in South Africa, with particular regard to the
teaching role. Delegates included researchers
in the Structure, Culture and Agency Research Project as well as academic
development practitioners from other South African and African universities, and
from universities in the United Kingdom and Australia.
The
aims of the colloquium were to assist professional academic developers in
strategizing their work, to advise senior managers at universities and to
contribute to national policy decisions and funding strategies.
1.2 Overview
of the programme[1]
The
programme began with two plenary sessions that set the scene for the later parallel
sessions: a presentation by Nan Yeld, the Director of the Teaching and Learning
Directorate at the Department of Higher Education and training (DHET) and another
by researchers in the Structure, Agency and Culture Project. The latter covered
the design and approach used in the project along with its key findings.
The
parallel sessions that followed included presentations on the following themes:
- Student learning and
implications for professional development
- Context
- Enhancing critical
reflection and reflexivity – in PG Dip in HE
- New directions for
AD work
- Context (and agency)
- Methodological resources
The
thematic sessions were followed by a short report-back session with the final sessions
focused on theory for researching professional academic development. Here the
emphasis was on critical and social realism, and practice-based approaches
informed by socio-materialism. In addition, consideration was given to how to
treat theoretical resources while remaining creative and critical and faithful
to context, and how to work with apparently disparate theoretical approaches.
While
the powerpoint presentations are available independently, this report
identifies issues that were foregrounded highlighting their importance in
addressing the aims of the colloquium. All presentations were followed by
questions and discussions, the contents of which are also included in this
report.
3. PROFESSIONAL
ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA – SOME CONSIDERATIONS
Professor
Nan Yeld, the Director of Teaching and Learning Directorate in the Department
of Higher Education and Training (DHET) provided an overview of current national
considerations and concerns, and possible new approaches for the future.
3.1 The
importance of learning environments
Recognising
variations in different institutional contexts, Professor Yeld foregrounded the
importance of learning environments for both staff and students – including
issues related to finance, housing and wellness. She explained that the DHET
recognises that for supportive facilities to be optimised, integrated planning is
required. In addition, it has been recognised that the traditional staff
categories of academic and non-academic, and the binaries associated with research
and teaching functions need to be addressed, for example through provision of
incentives for staff to take up development opportunities. Other considerations
being taken into consideration at the national level focus on the ways in which
research contributes to policy and implementation, including the prioritisation
of high-impact practices.
3.2 Achievements
in the area of Teaching and Learning
Professor
Yeld acknowledged that there have been a number of achievements in the area of
teaching and learning, not least of which is the acknowledgement that teaching
makes a difference! Other important drivers of change mentioned in her
presentation included the development of institutional teaching and learning
strategic plans, the establishment of senior committees with accountability at
institutional and faculty levels, the inclusion of teaching in promotion
requirements, and the recognition of the professionalization of teaching as
being important.
3.3 A
new ‘University Capacity Development Programme’
Professor
Yeld outlined the new “University Capacity Development Programme” currently
being finalised by the DHET. It is anticipated that this will be implemented at
three levels:
- professional
doctorates through blended learning;
- short courses /
modules focusing on managing / learning processes (as opposed to
teaching);
- expert seminars / study visits / workshops.
3.4 Complexities
around funding
Much
of Professor Yeld’s presentation, and the subsequent questions and discussion,
focused on the complexities around funding and funding management. While a
number of areas have been earmarked for 2015 / 2016 grants[2], the recent
funding review process has given rise discussions about the possibility of one
grant to cover the following subsections:
- Established
processes such as mentoring, tutorial systems, Writing Centres, core
TLC-type staff
- Teaching and Learning
development
- Research development
- Extended programmes
with increased focus on teaching and learning and curriculum development,
monitoring and evaluation (moving beyond numbers reached)
- A capacity development programme for professional staff.
One
of the key questions on funding facing the DHET is: How can development costs be
distinguished from normal “maintenance” costs? A comment from the floor highlighted
the importance of achieving a balance between earmarked funding and the block
grants. While the former acts as a catalyst and drives new projects, the block
grants need to keep pace with the costs of general provision. Another response
from the floor suggested that development grants focus on “people” rather than
“projects”. A third delegate reminded the audience that people development
needs will vary from one institutional context to another, while a fourth
argued for the need for “sustained engagement” rather than one-off
workshops.
3.5 Urgent
Teaching and Learning concerns
Professor
Yeld listed a number of urgent concerns in the area of teaching and learning,
leading with the inability to spend and account for activities, and poor
management of processes. At present, she said, there is little evidence of the impact
of efforts of the SOTL.
In
addition, there continues to be a lack of clarity as to what is understood by key
terms used in the area of teaching and learning, such as “tutorials” (who may
become a tutor and what training is required), “mentorship” and the role of
student evaluations of lecturers. There is no consensus as to what counts as “high
impact practices” - or which three interventions could be prioritised for immediate
attention. Professor Yeld drew a distinction between “data” versus “evidence”
suggesting the lack of “evidence” is partly responsible for the lack of
strategies.
As
indicated by a delegate during the discussion session, research findings and
conclusions do not immediately translate into policy or practice. Professor
Yeld commented that a forum such as HELTASA[3] could
compile a list of constraints to implementation and suggestions on how to
address these.
The
final concerns highlighted were disjunctures between institutional development
plans, insufficient awareness of the wider higher education policy environment
and development, the use of the TDGs as “income relief” and the effect that “projectivised”
approaches have on funding.
3.6 Major
issues for future funding cycles
In
conclusion, Professor Yeld pointed to major issues requiring attention in
future funding cycles. These included sustaining professional expertise and
structures in the teaching and learning areas, and continuing “proven” good
practices once they become institutionalized. In addition, the need to match
management and accountability efforts with value / yield, and to deal with
profligate spending, where this occurs, were mentioned. Delegates were asked to
consider the possible benefits of central steering and the contributions and
limitations of research in their deliberations.
4. PRESENTATION
OF THE STRUCTURE, AGENCY AND CULTURE PROJECT AND ITS KEY FINDINGS
Jo
Vorster (Rhodes University) introduced the presenters – Susan van Schalkwyk
(SU) and Clever Ndebele (UniVen) – and the respondents - Martin Oosthuizen
(NWU) and Stan Mukhola (TUT).
4.1 Overview
of study approach and design
Professor
van Schalkwyk introduced the project and its background, acknowledging Brenda
Leibowitz’s leadership of the large team of researchers. She explained that the
eight universities included in the study represented many different contexts or
spaces so provided for different ways of looking at teaching and learning. A
multi-level case study, the project drew on collaborative and reflective research
modes as participants sought to understand practice within their institutional
contexts.
The
study aims as to advance professional development by making suggestions for
national policy and contributing to international debates, with specific reference
to the concepts “structure”, “agency” and “culture”.
The
project began with desktop research to identify national and international
trends in the teaching role of academic staff. The researchers generated
documents institutionally – “critical pieces” – with each institutional leader writing
a more reflective response to these. After this initial phase, a survey (with
approximately 700 staff responses) and in-depth interviews (with approximately
15 members of staff at various levels) were conducted.
Analytical
work involved synthesising all the documents generated using Archer’s
framework, thus laying the foundation for the case studies. Descriptive
statistics and thematic analyses were included. An overarching report will be
completed. In the meantime, the case study reports have been used within the
individual institutions to influence institutional-level policy.
4.2 Main
findings and high-level recommendations
In
introducing his presentation Professor Ndebele pointed out that a number of the
project findings are closely related to issues raised in Professor Yeld’s
earlier presentation. For example, the project had found that Teaching and Learning
Centres offer support for professional development and that a number of policies
have been developed. The project has also revealed, however, that most of the programmes
on offer target only the less experienced lecturers rather than cater for all levels
and categories of staff. Generally, the
programmes offered do not provide for the sustained engagement required for new
learning with lecturers working in isolation.
The
issue of context loomed large in this presentation – with differences noted
between the historically advantaged institutions and the historically
disadvantaged institutions. The high staff turnover was noted in the rural
universities included in the study along with the challenges associated with
the casualisation of staff.
The
project has also found that institutional leadership has a direct impact (positive
or negative) on the success of academic development initiatives. In addition, differences
in conceptualisations of teaching and what counts as good teaching were
revealed in the data. In some cases, successful teaching was determined by
throughput and graduation rates, while a broader vision informed other views.
For some interviewees, teaching was a “common sense” activity rather than an
area for professionalization. Traditional tensions between research and
teaching and the value accorded to each of these were also recorded. These
findings speak directly to the issues of context and culture.
Possible
recommendations arising from the project could include those that focus on the
following issues:
- National recognition
of teaching needs – teaching needs to be uplifted nationally
- More and improved professional
development opportunities
- Teaching conditions
need further investigation
- History, geography
and resources all impact provision and delivery
- Tenure for staff –
casualisation militates against investment in development
- Infrastructure,
leadership and administration all have an impact
- Central organisation
is needed to assist teaching development
- The binary between
teaching and research functions needs to be addressed
- Learning from peers
within programmes needs further attention.
A
number of papers have already produced by researchers on this project. The list
can be viewed at the end of Professor Ndebele’s powerpoint presentation.
4.3 Response
from Martin Oosthuizen
In
his response to the two presentations in this session of the programme, Professor
Oosthuizen commended the Structure, Culture and Agency Project for “opening up the
black box of teaching and learning” and identifying levers that impact this
area of work. The collaborative nature of the project was seen as having been
important in this regard.
Professor
Oosthuizen linked the concept of “context” to stratification of the higher
education sector and, therefore, the important material conditions in which the
institutions operate, including their histories, geographies and legacies – all
of which have an impact. Differentiation, too, both horizontal and vertical,
continues to feed into the binary of teaching and research.
Professor
Oosthuizen argued that the findings of the project indicate that national
policy needs to support differentiation and ensure parity in the research and
teaching functions within and across institutions. He suggested that the
establishment of a national body for teaching and learning would provide a structure
where issues impacting on professional development could be discussed. This
body could then inform DHET after which Institutional leaders and managers
could decide how institutional-level policy (e.g. conditions of service, tenure
etc) would follow the central direction provided.
In
responding to the view of teaching as a “common sense” activity, Professor
Oosthuizen argued that professional knowledge needs to underpin professional
development programmes – and that programmes should include information on the nature
of knowledge and how it is generated in different disciplines. He went on to
say that professional development programmes need to be based on the systematic
study of various issues, include explanatory frameworks (including grounded
theory) and
evidence
for why some initiatives are successful. The programmes need to be realistic in
terms of what can be achieved in allocated time periods, take into informal
learning opportunities, and be reviewed in relation to enhancement themes.
4.4
Response from Stan
Mukhola
Professor
Mukhola began his presentation by asking a number of questions:
- Are academics really
less prepared than other professionals, e.g. lawyers, doctors and high
school teachers?
- Are they less
prepared than academics in other countries for their world of work?
- How do we ensure that academics know how to facilitate learning in their disciplines (and beyond)?
In
addressing these questions, Professor Mukhola argued that academic staff need
to engage in professional learning to enhance their facilitator of learning
role. He referred to both formal and informal learning opportunities, including
reflection. Agreeing with previous speakers, Professor Mukhola highlighted the
importance of sustained engagement in broad and continuous learning platforms
where the focus shifts from teaching skills to the facilitation of learning.
Professor
Mukhola outlined the approach to professional academic programmes followed at
the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). This implied passionate
scholarship, quality enhancement, change throughout the whole university
environment (including policies and strategies); informed curriculum change,
transformative facilitation, and excellence across the range of academic
practices. He went on to describe a number of the professional development
programmes offered at TUT, along with their positive outcomes and limitations.
Many
of issues raised by previous speakers were also given emphasis by Professor
Mukhola: the difficulties of catering for the range of needs amongst academics
at different levels, especially in a large university, and, therefore,
one-size-fits-all approach with the focus on full-time academic staff; the
length of the programmes on offer (one day to one week) that does not provide
for sustained engagement and informal learning activities; and insufficient
commitment amongst academic staff to attend programmes.
In
considering professional development programmes to be offered in future,
Professor Mukhola suggested that realities of academics in universities of
technology be taken into account (e.g. workloads, large classes and student
preparedness), that varied learning processes and practices be included, and
that relevant theory be linked to practice. The professional development
programmes already on offer in other countries could provide a platform for the
development of programmes in South African universities.
These
suggestions were taken up in the open discussion where the importance of
tailoring professional development programmes after conducting needs analyses was
highlighted. A key question raised “How much needs to be covered in these
programmes and how should this be done?” was later addressed in a parallel
session.
A
final comment from a delegate in this session stressed that research into (and
including the evaluation of) professional development programmes should take
into account the differing aims of the programmes, a variety of measures of
success (or impact) that can be used, and the time-periods over which success
might be measured.
5. REPORT
BACK FROM PARALLEL SESSIONS
This
session, chaired by Nasima Badsha, provided the opportunity for the rapporteurs
to report back on key issues raised in the parallel sessions. (The abstracts
for these presentations are in Appendix 2 to this report.) In summarising the
report backs, this section of the report illustrates the linkages between the
three concepts “structure”, “culture” and “agency” by foregrounding another two
- “context” and “identity”.
Context
was seen to be central in many of the presentations. It was viewed as
multi-layered from the South African national policy level with its principle
of differentiation to the varied institutional contexts (for example,
historically disadvantaged versus historically advantaged institutions,
traditional universities, particularly those seen to be research-intensive, and
universities of technology, and rural versus urban campuses). In most
presentations, context was linked to identity not only across institutional sites but within
individual universities – the divisions of labour between academic and
non-academic or support staff, and between researchers and teachers, and even
between lecturers and academic development staff. The need for “border
crossings” and greater levels of trust was highlighted in one presentation.
Alongside
context, the concepts structure and culture were used since different
institutional sites have different structures (or ways in which the
organisations are arranged) and different ways of doing things, reflecting
norms, values and traditions.
The
purpose of the universities was seen to be another aspect of their
institutional identities. Many presentations throughout the day acknowledged
the increasingly complex role played by these institutions with terms such as
“the entrepreneurial university” being introduced and debated. These debates
then raised further questions about the role of academic development in
universities – and how this area of work needs to reflect the ever-evolving
role of academics in universities. As a result, no final definition of academic
development can be given as this will remain a dynamic set of roles. In other
words, academic development remains a complex process within a complex system.
A
number of presentations focused on the structure and content of the
professional development programmes that could be offered in future. These moved away from the “one-size-fits-all
approach” to a more “tailored” and needs-driven approach where a number of
possible “target” audiences could be identified. A “ladder of learning” with
three different levels was described one presentation – the emerging level, the
developing level and the distinguishing level.
Other
presentations gave emphasis to a strong knowledge base, theories of change and
learning, the national policy context, immersion, blended modalities, reflection
and writing. There was agreement that staff could be strongly encouraged (rather
than coerced) to attend these programmes through support from (distributed) institutional
leaders who act as critical enablers in making strategic policy decisions.
Context
and identity were, therefore, also linked to power and power relations in
several presentations with some presenters urging academic development practitioners
to take “ownership” of and view themselves as scholars in this field. Other presenters
urged leaders and managers to reconsider the output-driven system and to
provide greater emphasis on input, including the resources and tools used in
teaching and learning.
The
possibility of using (and even combining) different theoretical approaches in
research on academic development was considered in the report back session with
the final session of the day providing a greater focus on theory.
6. PANEL
DISCUSSION: THEORY FOR RESEARCHING PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT
The
panelists in this session were:
Peter
Kahn (University of Liverpool) speaking on critical realism
John
Hannon (La Trobe University) speaking on socio-materialism, and
Kibbie
Naidoo (University of Johannesburg) speaking on using theory.
The
two respondents were:
Lucia
Thesen (University of Cape Town) and
Chrissie
Boughey (Rhodes University).
In
her introduction to this session, Brenda Leibowitz argued that “how we conduct
research is not just a technical question or a matter of semantics” – the
theories used frame what is seen and found. Theories give and shape and from
the project.
6.1
Peter Kahn – critical
realism
Peter
Kahn began the session by providing a reason for choosing critical realism: he
said that this offers an explanation of why the world is as it is and provides
for critique and change. Margaret Archer’s theory, based as it is on
emancipation and social justice, provides a framework for researchers to develop
understandings of “rich landscapes” and why things are as they are within
different university. Based on their understandings, researchers can then assist
in re-framing policies to make a difference to these landscapes. For example,
new funding policy can steer social relations and mechanisms (e.g. tutorials,
mentorships) used for learning.
6.2
John Hannon –
socio-materialism
In
his presentation, John Hannon explained key concepts in and value of a
socio-material approach. Part of the “family of practice studies”,
socio-materiality gives emphasis to materials and spaces, building on the
notion that “things only exist in relation to each other”. Technological
developments require a re-thinking of spaces of work and teaching and learning
theories. In this century, “hybrid spaces” mean that our “knowledge practices”
have changed and, so, our ways of thinking about what we do and how we do it
also need to change.
Theorising
about these issues is “a messy thinking business that requires effort” and
further complicated because our everyday world is constantly being
co-constituted – it is co-evolving, performed and co-emergent.
Socio-materialism provides a useful framework for focusing on materials and
their relations and tracing these through an empirical process. A relational
ontology is used to address the question: how do things hold together? In this
way, the “logic of practice” (including pedagogical practice) and the
disconnections in practice may be identified.
6.3
Kibbie Naidoo – on using
theory
Kibbie
Naidoo’s presentation focused on the ways in which researchers can use theory
in the process of knowledge production. She suggested that researchers use
theory much more critically in relating it to their own local contexts and
experiences – in her words, use theory as “a vehicle for (building) outrageous
hypotheses”! In this way, higher education should be thought of as “a site of
struggle” for social justice.
Researchers
were urged to use “the power of the sociological imagination” and see things
anew rather than merely employing traditional grand theory and sociological
empiricism. Similarly, rather than relying on one theory, Kibbie suggested that
researchers enter into dialogue with different theories, particularly where
different knowledges have different values. In doing so, researchers may need
to take risks and make themselves more vulnerable in conducting analysis and
synthesis tasks.
These
suggestions were taken up by a delegate who recalled how he and other academic
practitioners had spent time “chasing credibility through theory” rather than
foregrounding lived experience.
6.4 Lucia
Thesen’s response
In
her response, Lucia Thesen spoke about two moments in her own personal
experience where she had faced “dilemmas with theory”. The first was when she
realized that she and her colleagues were pursuing an identity (and definition)
for academic development at a time when the value of interdisciplinary work was
being recognised. The second was in relation to context, the question being
“How much context do you give?” when writing for publication purposes.
Underlying Lucia’s second dilemma was the recognition of the ways in which
concepts and theories are interpreted differently within the contexts in which
they are used.
6.4
Chrissie Boughey’s
response
Chrissie
Boughey picked up on the value of critical realism which she termed “a
philosophy of reality” and distinguished it from explanatory theories which are
used in “making the data work”. She, too, agreed that theories could be
combined – and possibly even “pitted against each other” – in helping
researchers understand the world and changes that they would like to see in
universities. In arguing for a
non-dualistic approach to the use of theory in research, Chrissie suggested
that it is the concepts within theories (e.g. structure, agency) that help us
“see beyond the obvious” of our lived experience. In this way, concepts are
tools which researchers “have a duty to use”. If possible, these concepts might
be linked together in a coherent theory with explanatory value.
7. CLOSE
AND WAY FORWARD
Gita
Mistri thanked all presenters and delegates for their participation in the
colloquium. Brenda Leibowitz promised that all the powerpoint presentations would
be uploaded onto Google drive for the benefit of colloquium participants - (https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2FWvqB_ReXzfjB6RUN6OGtreDNidWxZUTBNV01sLTE3enN1NmZ0Uk9HTHdtZWd2dXlDY00&usp=sharing)
The
Structure, Agency and Culture research team will work with the data from the
project and the presentation at the colloquium to develop a more comprehensive
and substantiated set of recommendations to be shared with the delegates before
being disseminated more widely, including to policy makers. Further deliberations
about professional development in higher education in relation to context will
be arranged by the HELTASA Professional Development Special Interest Group.
Appendix 1
COLLOQUIUM
CONTEXTUAL APPROACHES TO PROFESSIONAL
ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT
WITH REGARD TO THE TEACHING ROLE
27 JULY 2015
DEVON VALLEY, STELLENBOSCH
PROGRAMME
08.30 Welcome and Introduction: Brenda
Leibowitz, UJ
08.45 Professional
Academic Development in South Africa – National Considerations: Nan Yeld (DHET)
09.45 Presentation
of the Structure, Culture and Agency Project and Key Findings
Structure, Culture and Agency Research Team (Susan van Schalkwyk, SU;
Clever Ndebele, UniVen)
Respondents: Martin Oosthuizen (DVC, NWU); Stan Mukhola,
(Acting DVC, TUT)
Chair: Jo
Vorster (RU and Convenor, Heltasa PD SIG)
11.0
TEA
Venue
|
Sylvanvale
|
Pinotage
|
The Workshop
|
Session
|
Student learning and implications for professional
development
|
Context
|
Enhancing critical reflection and reflexivity – in PGDip
in HE
|
11.20 – 11.45
|
Dwayi
|
Winberg and Garraway
|
Quinn and Vorster
|
11.45 – 12.10
|
Dresselhaus and
Viljoen
|
Ndebele, Muhuro, Nkonki
|
Dison
|
12.10 – 12.35
|
Merckel
|
Shava
|
Govender and Pallit
|
12.30 LUNCH
Venue
|
Sylvanvale
|
Pinotage
|
The Workshop
|
Session
|
New Directions for AD Work
|
Context (and agency)
|
Methodological Resources
|
13.35 – 14.00
|
Van Schalkwyk and McMillan
|
Jawitz
|
Leibowitz
|
14.00 – 14.25
|
Woods and Cameron
|
Omingo
|
Sipuka
|
14.25 – 14.50
|
Shalyefu
|
Herman
|
Mistri
|
14.50 – 15.15
|
Pitso, Lebusa and
Tjabane
|
Context (and difference)
Farmer
|
Bozalek and McMillan
|
Note:
the S, C and A project members (above names in italics) to serve as chairs of
sessions.
15.15 Report back from parallel papers:
recommendations for policy, practice and further research
Rapporteurs from S, C and A Research Team
Chair:
Nasima Badsha (CHEC)
15.45 TEA
16.15 Panel
Discussion: Theory for Researching Professional Academic Development with
Regard to the Teaching Role
Focus on
critical and social realism, and practice-based approaches informed by socio-materialism.
The discussion will consider: considerations for choosing theoretical
resources; how to treat
theoretical resources as useful whilst remaining creative and critical and
faithful to context; how easily one can work with apparently disparate
theoretical approaches; and what can be gained by working with these two approaches.
Panellists
Peter
Kahn (University of Liverpool - on
critical realism)
John
Hannon (La Trobe University - on socio-materialism)
Kibbie
Naidoo (University of Johannesburg - on
using theory)
Respondents
Lucia Thesen (UCT)
Chrissie
Boughey (Rhodes)
Appendix 2
ABSTRACTS
FOR PARALLEL SESSIONS
BOZALEK, Vivienne and McMillan,
Wendy
University
of the Western Cape
Teaching, learning, and research:
Diffracting the interviews of Deputy Vice Chancellors of Teaching and Learning
Traditionally, teaching
and research have been conceptualized as binaries, which has had crucial
consequences for professional academic development in the higher education
sector. This chapter uses new feminist
materialisms, particular the work of Karen Barad (2007) to trouble the dualisms
of teaching and research. In order to do
this, we draw on Barad’s relational ontology.
This ontological position holds that entities do not pre-exist
relationships and agency does not reside uniquely within a human individual,
but is a performance within a relationship. Barad (2007) uses a diffractive methodology to
ascertain ‘patterns of difference that make a difference’ (p. 72). A
diffractive methodology is used in this chapter to examine the entanglements of
ideas both within and between interviews which were conducted with eight deputy
vice chancellors teaching and learning in South African higher education
institutions. A diffractive methodology
requires a close and attentive reading of the fine details of a text to
ascertain ‘patterns of difference that make a difference’ (Barad, 2007, p.
72). Diffractive methodologies can be
used to move beyond the dichotomies which have traditionally emerged between
teaching and learning and research, to provide inventive and creative
provocations. A diffractive approach
also alerts one to the effect that the researcher, the participants, the selection
of research methods and the interview guide intra-act as specific
material-discursive practices which open up possibilities in the research
process while excluding others. Thus the
analysis of research findings is understood as an enactment amongst
research-data-participants-theory (Mazzei, 2013). In analyzing the interviews
diffractively, our focus was not upon the human intentionality of individual
participants in the study, but on ‘a complex network of human and non-human
agents, including historically specific sets of material conditions that exceed
the traditional notion of the individual’ (Barad 2007, p. 23). In the case of the interviews considered in
this chapter, this complex network included the entanglements of the legacy of
apartheid and global neoliberal discourses emphasising outputs, research and
student throughput, which were read diffractively through Boyer’s (1990) theory
of the scholarship of teaching and learning.
DISON, Laura
University
of the Witwatersrand
Demystifying reflective practice’:
the role of reflection in a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education
One of the main aims of
the Diploma in Higher Education (PHDip) at the University of the Witwatersrand,
is for participants to reflect on their role and practice as teachers, course
designers and assessors in their disciplines.
Ashwin et al (2015) describe this as a systematic re-evaluation of
teaching experiences in order to ‘change future teaching practices’. A key
assumption of the programme is for participants to engage deeply in the
‘artistry’ of reflection in order to ‘turn (their) experience into learning’
(Boud 1985). In implementing the first module, Learning and Teaching in Higher
Education (L &THE) in 2015, it became apparent to the course presenters
that the fundamental goal of instilling critically reflective practice in the
participants needed to take into account the different forms and levels of
reflection required for ways of knowing and learning in an ‘epistemically
diverse curriculum’ (Luckett 2002). It
was assumed that students
would operate at a fairly high level of meta-awareness without recognizing that
certain disciplinary fields do not have a tradition of reflective practice
(Stierer, 2009). This paper contributes to a critical understanding of
what it means to reflect meaningfully to achieve foundational, practical,
personal and reflexive competencies in relation to the key learning outcomes of
this professional course. The study reports on methods for integrating
strategies and tools for stimulating reflective practice in the module T&LHE.
It also shows how the different forms of reflection have been incorporated and
‘front-end loaded’ into the assessment criteria of the digital portfolio, the
key assessment task of the PGDip.
DRESSELHAUS, Fritz and Viljoen, Margaret
University of Pretoria
Experience Innovation
through Action Research in a Financial Management Module: An emergent paradigm
in professional academic development
Retention and pass rates in the teaching,
learning and assessment of a Financial Management Module remain a concern at a
South African University. Interventions were implemented. Research data however
showed that the students liked and favored the new approaches; yet pass rates
remained well below the expected norm. Students seemed to lack the ability to
convert these positive opportunities into real learning success. In an extended
sense this condition is described by Amartya Sen as a ‘conversion handicap’,
where Sen poses that individual factors unique to each learner may hamper the
conversion of educational opportunity into real success in learning. To
discover the reasons why some students are unable to convert learning
opportunities into real success, a number of instruments have been developed
nationally and internationally. Kuh recommended four high impact practices to
promote learning success. Improvement
practices in the Financial Management Module were not based on Kuh’s
recommendations; practices were rather based on quantitative and qualitative
data analyses derived from self-reported student experiences – experience
innovation driven by learners and through learners. The effect of experience
innovation on professional academic development will be that the classic divide
between teaching and research is closed; that future professionals should be
empowered to interpret to design an intervention, to develop a story board for
action research to generate own data; to implement and to measure success – and
start the process again and again in the never ending quest for excellence.
DWAYI, Valile
Walter Sisulu University
Academic
Monitoring and Support as Reflexive and Dialectical Practices of University
Leadership and Management
This paper reports on the
work in progress about the role of academic leadership and management in
promoting and monitoring student success. The bigger project of which this
paper forms part seeks to explore the factors that condition academic decision
making events and processes about student performance which thus eliminate or
perpetuate student exclusions, marginalisation and disadvantage in a
developmental context. Monitoring practices by higher education
leadership and management are ideally about evidence based practices which
should derive from prior defined performance targets about student success and
graduation rates. Such practices entail monitoring for educational
improvement/development by means of data management and developmental research
as students are journeying from university entry to program completion.
Academic leadership and management practices should also provide opportunity to
build organizational capacity for continual, coordinated and collaborative
enhancement that produces organizational learning. How students then get
excluded from such an ideal higher education monitoring system, and in the
context of the equity of access and the quality of student success, presents
the dilemmas and tensions of leadership and management agency especially in the
contexts of education as the public good. The bigger project frames higher
education practices in reflexive and dialectic terms, and thus draws from both
professional practice in general and Archer’s social realist theory, in
particular. For the social interaction phase, data was collected from four
academic programs by means analysis of organisational records. Survey questionnaire
were distributed to Heads of Departments and followed by a focus group
interviews. Discussion of this paper will involve exploring the potential
implications for capacity and capabilities development for academic leadership
and management along integrated academic development.
FARMER, Jean, Carolissen, Ronelle and Leibowitz, Brenda
Stellenbosch University
Narratives of Black Women
Academics’ Trajectories in South African Universities
Data for this study emerged
from my own trajectory and an interest in the narratives of other black women
who successfully reached academic positions in higher education institutions. I
am interested in why and how underprepared and under-supported black women,
would desire to persist against all the socio-historical threats to impede
their success. Often blacks are blamed for their own failure or arguments that
many black graduates prefer to enter the private sector because there are
higher paid positions. This however does not account for those black women who
do stay in academia and do not progress. This thesis investigates the
structural, cultural and contextual affordances and challenges inside and
outside of the institutions, as well as the sense of agency of these women, on
their trajectory. I investigate the notion from the data
that these women feel a ‘burden of proof’ or encounter a visible or invisible
ceiling which is not a reality to others. I analyze the data of these stories
of past to see whether they feel that lack of comprehensive schooling, parentage
and socio-historical background had an influence. Which are the issues, in our
minds, which have distanced us from attaining positions in higher education and
how do we navigate our way through or around these. The interwoven narratives include the profiles of
seventeen black women academics at four different institutions in South Africa
in response to the research questions:
I.
What in past and current contextual experiences are perceived as
influences in our trajectories to higher education?
II.
In which way does the interplay of individual, social and institutional
contexts further influence our trajectories?
GOVENDER, Shanali and Pallitt, Nicola
University of Cape Town
Getting messy with critical
reflection: How shifting modes support developing professional identities of
emerging academics
Despite posing substantial challenges for
emerging academics, written critical reflection is extensively used as a tool
for academic development. The affordances of alternative modalities for critical
reflection have been largely under-researched in the local context. This
research seeks to understand the affordances and constraints of shifting the
modality of these submissions and the implications this has for academic staff
development activities involving critical reflection. Using data, including written texts and video
interviews, produced by an emerging academic attending a professional academic
development course at a local university, we explore how a shift in modes
enables or limits the critical reflection activities of emerging academics on a
professional development course. Drawing on notions of identity and voice from
New Literacy Studies and multimodal discourse analysis, we explore her shifting
professional identity and her developing understanding of key concepts from the
field of Higher Education Studies.
Our analysis suggests that modal specialisation produces different
forms of critical reflection. Supporting the emerging academic’s experience of
writing critical reflections as isolating, time consuming, and a distinctly
theoretical and ‘academic’ activity, textual analysis offers examples of an
authorial disconnect, a reliance on disciplinary discourse and a loss of the
values that underpin learning and teaching. The emerging academic experienced
video interviews as a more accessible form of critical reflection. Our analysis
of the video submissions suggest that this modality allows for the expression
of a stronger practitioner voice, characterised by use of anecdote, first person
singular and emotive language. In light of these findings, we encourage staff
development practitioners to consider alternative modalities for critical
reflection.
HERMAN, Nicoline, Bitzer, Eli and Leibowitz, Brenda
Stellenbosch University
‘I make learning about teaching a
priority, but that is MY choice, not that of my faculty or department’: Caring for the well-being of
university teachers as a potentially productive approach to professional
learning (PL)
The purpose of PL for university
lecturers is to bring about change in their teaching and assessment practices
for quality student learning and takes place within a complex and challenging
higher education environment. The purpose of this research was to explore the
influence of context on the decision-making of academics to participate in the
process of PL for their teaching at Stellenbosch University. This was done to
inform PL practitioners, such as myself, about the potential effect of
contextual influences as perceived by academics themselves. My PhD research
focused on ‘context’ as the everyday reality of academics created at the
intersection between the spheres of their professional and personal
life-worlds.
This multi-methods, explorative case study formed
part of a national research project, funded by the NRF and entitled: The interplay of Structure, Culture and
Agency (ESA20100729000013945). Empirical research took place in phases.
Phase one comprised an anonymous electronic questionnaire with open and closed
questions, administered to all permanently employed academics at the
institution. A 25% response rate generated quantitative and 120 pages of
qualitative data. During phase two,
interviews were conducted with 15 purposively selected academics. Qualitative
data was categorised and thematically analysed.
As expected, the considerations from the spheres of the personal and
professional life-worlds as interpreted by the individual academics at SU is to
a large extent not perceived as enabling to their decision-making for PL. In
response to the findings, it is suggested that more attention should be paid to
aspects facilitating the well-being of academics in creating an environment
conducive to their decision-making for participating in the process of PL for
teaching.
JAWITZ, Jeff and Perez, Teresa
University of Cape Town
Asserting Agency: Academics navigating time and space for
teaching development
Within the
context of research intensive institutions, a dominant discourse places time
and pressure to publish as major constraints that interfere with the way
academics engage with professional development (PD) opportunities for teaching.
This study at UCT shows how a significant set of academics are able to overcome
these constraints. Their practice is characterised by an assertion of agency driven
by strong self-motivation to improve their teaching and successfully facilitate
learning amongst their students. Enjoyment of teaching was evident across the
majority of respondents surveyed and therefore doesn’t explain why some attend
PD opportunities while others do not. Many say they would like to attend PD
activities but can’t because of time, and the risks they associate with
attending. However, there are others
with similar time constraints and research pressures who do attend. So what is
it about their experience of time and the PD space that is different? Our analysis of their narratives revealed an
assertion of agency reflected in four areas of their engagement with the PD
space. Drawing on a strong intrinsic motivation for self-improvement, these
areas encompassed making time, applying new learnings to their disciplinary
contexts, re-interpreting a perceived institutional disregard for teaching as a
freedom to engage, and building support networks and communities. Their stories reflect a taking charge of
their circumstances and making choices to maximise the value they are able to
extract from these PD opportunities.
LEIBOWITZ, Brenda
University of
Johannesburg
A
tale of two paradigms – useful tools to research teaching and learning?
This
paper explores the dynamics of being and becoming a good university teacher
from the point of view of two theoretical approaches: the work of social
realist Margaret Archer (1995; 2000) on
the interplay between structure, culture and agency; and practice-based
approaches to situated learning (Wenger, 1998; Gherardi, 2012); Fenwick and
Nerland, 2014). I use an account of how the research team implemented the
Structure, Culture and Agency research project to show how social realism and
the practice turn have much to offer researchers working within the field of
higher education professional development, and what we have come to term “being
and becoming a good lecturer”. Critical realism allows us to investigate “what
type of social structures must be in place for learning to be possible,
comprehensive, fruitful and ongoing?”Nunez (2014: xvii) whilst a practice-based
approach would encourage us to consider “the practices in which academics
engage and how these practices might be extended” as well as to “foster
learning-conducive work, where ‘normal’ academic work practices are
reconfigured to ensure that they foster practice development” (Boud and Brew,
2013, p. 214).
The
proposed presentation will provide a comparison between the two theoretical
approaches, an analysis of potential contrasts and contradiction between the
two, points of similarity and a consideration of the potential of each to
contribute to an enhanced understanding of the task of professional development
of academics with regard to the teaching role. The presentation also considers
the feasibility of conducting a research project based on one conceptual
framework, and moving to an alternative or additional framework when the
project is well into the implementation phase.
MERCKEL, Vanessa
University of
Johannesburg
Academic Development that fosters
transformation: Exploring thoughts on troubling dialogues and love as acts of
transformation.
In
this paper, I wish to offer up for consideration one approach adapted from a
teacher education module aimed at transformative practice, for academic
developers to explore productive ways for how we can engage with issues of
transformation in ethical and non-violent ways. Underpinning this paper are
three main ideas. The first links to Einstein’s notion that problems cannot be
solved with the same thinking that created them. If we acknowledge how our past
experiences of exploitation and oppression resulted in hatred, violence, shame
and marginalisation, then to raise the level of thinking about these, we could
also explore issues of healing, peace, forgiveness, and love and how these
could shape teaching and learning. I will focus more specifically on unpacking
the notion of (radical) love as
transformative educational practice. Secondly, painful past experiences have
contributed to all of us operating with difficult (Britzman, 1998;117; 2000:35; Zembylas, 2014) or troubled
knowledges (Jansen, 2009) which tend to
shape how we relate to one another. Therefore the third idea is that we should
purposefully cultivate an ethical and non-violent context for troubling
dialogues to occur. I draw on the work
of contemplative scholars who refer to an approach called an “epistemology of
love” (Zajonc, 2006; Zajonc & Palmer, 2010: 94-96) which incorporates
aspects guiding engagement characterised by respect, gentleness, intimacy,
vulnerability and participation, amongst other things, and which go beyond
intellectual academic knowing, towards fostering extended or enriched ways of knowing and
being. I offer up these three ideas for exploration and interrogation in the
hope of forming more nuanced ideas for how academic/professional development
with lecturers can potentially contribute to transformation in the academy and
possibly make recommendations for practice and further research.
MISTRI, Gita
Durban University of
Technology
Connections and disconnections in professional academic development for
the integration of digital technologies in learning and teaching: Searching for
causal mechanisms
The varying and often underwhelming
response to the integration of digital technologies in higher education
teaching and learning by academics has been cause for concern. It has been noted in developed countries that
despite substantial institutional and systemic commitment such as the provision
of infrastructural facilities for successful integration as well as training
and support for staff, the level of technology utilisation remains disturbingly
low. This trend has drawn attention in
developing countries and reaffirmed the need for research-informed,
contextually relevant and responsive approaches to digital integration in
teaching and learning.
Professional academic development
has been recognised as a critical factor in the process of meaningful
integration of digital technologies in higher education. However academics have been varied in their
responses to invitations to participate in professional development workshops,
ranging from enthusiasm to reluctance.
It is this range of reactions that is the point of departure of this
paper. The main focus of this paper is
not on the adoption of digital technologies nor on the design of professional
development programmes for the integration of digital technologies in teaching.
It centres on finding causal explanations to understand what it is that
influences the participation and engagement of academics in such
programmes. Using a social realist
approach, I argue that that we need to look beyond the superficial appearances or
events to understand the ‘connections’ that produce the reality we experience (Sayer, 2000).
NDEBELE, Clever, Muhuro, Patricia and Nkonki, Vuyisile
University of Venda and University
of Fort Hare
Rurality and the Professional
Development of University Teachers
What are the cultural, structural and agential conditions which enable
and constrain the professional development of academics in their role as
teachers, which either encourage or discourage them to take advantage of
professional development opportunities in a rural university environment? In
order to answer the above question, this study which is part of a wider NRF
Research project involving eight universities, sought to examine the context of
rurality by examining the enabling and constraining conditions with regard to
the professional development of academics as teachers at two historically
disadvantaged rural based universities that were part of the project. An electronic
survey with closed and open questions was distributed to all permanently
employed teaching academics at the two historically disadvantaged universities.
Audio-recorded interviews at the two institutions with five members of the
senior management (Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for
teaching and learning and three Deans and ten academics) provided additional
data for this research paper. Thematic analysis of both questionnaire data and
interview transcripts revealed amongst other things constraints around policy
and subsidy for staff development, as well as the development of
discipline-specific competencies that require collaboration with industry and
corporate firms. The study identifies enabling structures and the judicious use
of technology in the mitigation of the challenges imposed by rurality.
Implications for the reconsideration of theoretical frames that inform
professional development and the need to bargain for pragmatic issues when
planning for professional development interventions in a rural setting are drawn.
OMINGO, Mary
Strathmore University
Systemic Conditions as Prompts for
Lecturers’ Professional Growth
The identification of
systemic conditions in different contexts, and how they prompt and challenge
lecturers to learn to teach can be useful in developing suitable academic
development strategies. In this paper
Archer’s (1995) morphogenetic approach is applied as a methodological and
conceptual framework to analyze lecturers’ accounts and explain the systemic conditions
that prompt and challenge them to learn to teach. The data was collected using
semi-structured interviews of twenty- five lecturers from four private
universities in Kenya.
The systemic conditions that
include students’ composition, teaching and learning conditions and
universities policies/strategic intent, were found to pre-date lecturers’ intentions
to learn to teach. The analysis suggests that lecturers are prompted to learn
to teach by their interaction with students who have diverse work, educational
and cultural backgrounds. Lecturers are also influenced by the university’s structures,
that is, large class sizes and multi- and inter- disciplinary programmes and
university’s policies. In such instances lecturers find themselves in
situations that challenge them to critically and reflectively think about their
teaching. In the process, knowingly or unknowingly, they learn to teach more
effectively. Although systemic conditions shape the situations that lecturers
confront involuntarily, these conditions only prompt them. The conditions do
not ‘determine’ the lecturers’ learning to teach. It is the interplay between
the powers of the systemic conditions, for example, students’ work experience
and the lecturers’ powers to plan for uncertainties that are decisive for the
lecturers’ professional growth.
PITSO, Teboho, Lebusa,
Malefane and TJabane, Masebala
Vaal University of Technology
Towards an Entrepreneurial
University: An Institutional and Academic Development Response
The role, identity
and positioning of Academic Development (AD) within higher education have been
and will continue to evolve and change depending on the overall institutional
goals it supports at a particular point in time. While it started by supporting
the improvement of teaching through organizing training workshops in the late
1970s, its role shifted to researching teaching and learning and more recently
on researching graduate attributes. Flowing outwardly from Academic Development
inner logic is the notion of an entrepreneurial university where AD role is
extended to supporting conversion of research outputs into economic and social
utility, turning units and faculties into quasi-firms, contributing to
curriculum innovation, developing enabling entrepreneurial pedagogies and
assisting management to incentivise these efforts. In this article, we provide
a framework for developing an entrepreneurial university and the results of a
study that aimed at examining the response of one particular university to the
idea of becoming an entrepreneurial university. Online questionnaires,
documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit data.
Results show a university that is coyly initiating efforts on becoming an
entrepreneurial university which provides AD with huge opportunities to
redefine its role, identity and positioning within the university. We briefly
zoom into AD strategic realignment in light of supporting institutional
entrepreneurship efforts and how that affects its role, identity and
positioning within the university.
QUINN, Lynn and Vorster, Jo-Anne
Rhode University
Pedagogy
for fostering criticality, reflectivity and praxis in a course on teaching
for lecturers
Using
the concepts of criticality, reflectivity and praxis (Stierer 2008), the paper
presents an analysis of our reflections on participants’ responses to the
assessment requirements for a course for lecturers on teaching. The context in
which the course is being taught has changed considerably in the last few years
in terms of the mode of delivery as well as the number and diversity of
participants. Our analysis has generated insights into ways which the course is
not meeting all the learning needs of the participants nor preparing them
adequately to demonstrate, in writing, their learning. Using insights
gained, we suggest pedagogic processes and strategies for ensuring that the
course focuses on both writing to learn and learning to write; and for
assisting participants to acquire the practices to demonstrate their learning
in written assessment tasks, using the requisite literacy including
criticality, reflectivity and praxis.
SHALYEFU, Rakel Kavena
University
of Namibia
The Impact of the Interplay
between Structural, Cultural and Agential factors on student learning and
academic development work - a trajectory at the University of Namibia
This
is a position paper interrogating the impact and the implications of the
context on student learning and academic development at an institution of
higher learning in Namibia. The Social Realist theoretical framework of the
interplay between structural, cultural and agential factors has been utilized
as a lens to interrogate the impact of the context on the institution. The data
is based on empirical experiences, observations and documents analysed by an
academic developer. In the light of the analysis of the constraining and
enabling factors, a new path to enhance student learning and academic
development work is suggested.
This paper will be an argument piece that will be
based on the lived experiences of an academic developer at an institution of
higher learning in Namibia. The paper will
employ the lenses of a sociological theoretical framework on culture,
structure and agency. In order interrogate the academic workplace as a
collection of community of practices, the paper will interrogate the impact of
the context at macro, meso and micro levels. Then it will highlight the
contextual imperatives for the institutions of higher learning in Namibia and
the implications for student learning and academic development. Given the prevailing contextual factors, the
paper will propose appropriate learning activities and academic development
approaches that may enhance effectiveness in teaching and improvement of
performance in learning. It is hoped that the paper would conclude with a
proposed model to improve teaching and learning in the context of higher
education in Namibia.
SHAVA, George
North West University
Professional Development for
Higher Education, Integrating and Supporting Strategies to Improve Student
Success in Zimbabwe
In the academic
circuit, Professional Development (PD) has proved a vital source for quality
and success in teaching and learning processes at universities. PD provides
academics with job satisfaction and in the process helps to build better
universities with competent lecturers. The development of pedagogical skills in
our university academics in Zimbabwe and the entire Sub Saharan region cannot
be addressed simply by running workshops at university level. More
sophisticated integrated models like PD are most appropriate. The programme for
PD at the university covered by this study seeks to enhance the professional
skills set as well as the overall experiences that can position academics for
greater academic success in teaching, research and community services.
Professional Development is therefore imperative for the currency and relevance
of a professional teaching force and in turn the quality of programmes
delivered in the university. The
changing context of higher education in Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole presents
new challenges for academics which should be addressed through effective PD.
Consequently the goal of this constructivist grounded theoretical study was to
explore the challenges faced by university academics during their participation
in Professional Development at a
university in Zimbabwe which is currently offering a Post Graduate Diploma in
Higher Education (PGDHE) to university academic staff. The qualitative study
which was framed within a Critical and Realist philosophy of culture, structure
and agency established that academics in the university appear to be over
whelmed by the demands of PD innovations which are also associated with
university quality assurance processes.
SIPUKA, Precious
Council on Higher
Education
Good teaching as ‘policy object’: A South
African multi-site case study
In the era of vast technological advancements,
massification, environmental and political changes, changing student
population, mergers of institutions, changes to governance, new funding formulas, and
new policies and legislation, higher education is faced with challenging
times. It is expected of higher
education to fulfil its mandate of
providing a quality education that will lead greater through-put rates,
producing graduates with desirable attributes ensuring student success. Achieving these aims is largely dependent on
the quality of teaching that happens in institutions.
Good teaching is not a linear static process but rather a continuum or
interrelationship between ‘being’ a good teacher and ‘becoming’ a good teacher.
Therefore, quality teaching should be conceived of as an ever evolving process
that is perfected through time and practice. Using a novel way of analysing
policy, the ‘policy object’ approach, the current study aims to explore how good
teaching is conceptualised and enacted at five South African higher education
institutions by different role players and at different sites. The ‘object
policy’ approach provides us with a lens to consider actors’ understanding of
the policy and how this understanding is translated through enactment in
different contexts. Data was obtained
from 5 universities and includes; institutional teaching and learning policies;
Reflective and descriptive reports produced by Directors of Centres for
Teaching and Learning; and 10 interviews with lecturers and 4 interviews with
members of senior management. Interview data and reflective reports are
analysed using thematic analysis.
VAN SCHALKWYK, Susan and McMillan,
Wendy
Stellenbosch
University and the University of the Western Cape
This duo-ethnographic account sets out to examine the lived experience
of two academic development practitioners as insider-outsiders in a particular
disciplinary space. Increasingly there is a shift towards situating such
practitioners within faculties. This practice poses challenges when the
practitioner comes from outside the disciplinary space. The literature related
to cross-disciplinary work highlights how discourse and culture create tensions
among the different role-players. Our study is significant because it signals
potential ways in which the insider-outside location can be mediated to support
teaching and learning successfully. We use “border crossing” as our theoretical
lens. “Border crossing” draws conceptually on the construct of political
frontiers and the identity work with which people located at the borders
engage. Duo-ethnography is a collaborative research methodology in which the
researchers work in tandem to critique, through dialogue, the meanings they
give to social issues and epistemological constructs. Our context is the Health Sciences where
there is a growing emphasis on teaching and learning. The study highlighted the
significance of the nature of border crossing and the symbolic and material
issues related to it. Power, border identity, othering, acceptance, agency,
resistance, theoretical influences, answerability, purpose of work, community
of practice emerged as significant to border work. Our study revealed that practitioners need
dual citizenship, immersing themselves consciously and persistently within the
disciplinary culture while remaining firmly grounded in the discourses and
culture of teaching and learning.
WINBERG, Chris and Garraway, James
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
‘It takes a village’:
attaining teaching excellence in a challenging context
The background to this study are changing
understandings, nationally and internationally, about what comprises teaching
excellence, how it is attained, what it might achieve with regard to student
outcomes, and how excellent teachers might be supported. The focus of the
research that is presented in this paper is higher education managers’ and
university teachers’ understandings of teaching excellence and its potential to
enhance student learning. The study consists of semi-structured interviews with
senior managers, heads of department and university teachers. The interviews
produced rich descriptions of university teaching, and revealed a range of
different expectations around what excellent teaching might or might not
achieve with regard to student learning.
The key findings from this study relate to the emerging understandings
of what teaching excellence entails and how it might be supported in a
particular institutional context. Context (in terms of the department, the
nature of the programme, institutional constraints and enablements, as well as
the needs of the students) shapes the form that excellent teaching takes. We
suggest that teaching excellence is institutionally and departmentally embedded
and that teaching expertise is distributed across departments and their
programmes, rather than attained by the work of a single academic or ‘teaching
expert’ alone. Teaching excellence emerges, not as a set of ‘best practices’
that might easily be shared across contexts, but as a set of deeply embedded
and highly contextualized practices. The implications for academic staff
development and the building of teaching expertise in departments, arising from
this research, are considered and some tentative recommendations made.
WOODS, Christine, and Cameron, Anne
University of the
Witwatersrand
A
proposed ‘ladder of learning’ for academics’ professional development in
teaching
In higher education institutions globally,
academic development practitioners whose work is to develop academic staff in
the area of teaching have historically come into the profession without
specific formal training. Their ideas and practice stem from the context of
their work and life experience, and their knowledge and practice grow with
experience on the job. As a result, there is a variety of knowledge and
expertise that shapes professional development activities in higher education
institutions. The aim of this paper is to report on the findings of a study
which drew on the collective wisdom of academic development practitioners who
participated in a workshop of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching
Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) special interest group on professional
development. The purpose of the workshop was to share what constitutes support
and development of the professional development of academics’ teaching
expertise and knowledge in higher education institutions in South Africa. With
the consent of participants, the insights gained from the findings and
recommendations will be offered to strengthen academic professional development
practice and guide the professional development of academic staff focusing on
teaching. Engeström’s version of Activity Theory was used as an interpretive
lens to identify key contextual elements from the data and align these onto a
‘ladder of learning’ – a hierarchically structured framework to inform
appropriate professional development activities, designed to support academics
as they progress in their careers from emerging to developing to distinguished
practice.
- Foundation provision
- Teaching development
- Research development
- Infrastructure and
efficiency
- Historically
Disadvantaged Institutions development
- University
Development Grant (arising from funding review).
[3] The Higher Education Teaching and
Learning Association
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