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ABSTRACTDefinitions and understandings of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), scholarly teaching, and research are multiple and often conflicting. Reflecting on Boyer’s intention for academic work to be recognised as overlapping and interconnected, in this paper we examine some of the commonly assumed models of Boyer’s scholarship of teaching and the creation of SoTL, in light of more recent arguments for SoTL to be recognised as part of research policies and frameworks. We explore the implications of these conceptions for academics with a mandate to engage with SoTL, such as teaching-focused academics. Through our analysis, we challenge the increasing interest in defining, separating and categorising academic work as ‘teaching-focused’ or ‘research-focused’ and work towards acknowledging the supercomplexity present in conceptualisations of research and SoTL. We suggest a shift in SoTL scholarly discourse from a sharedto a nuancedunderstanding that recognises the variation in ways people practice SoTL as a strength. To this end, we offer a trifocal framework of supercomplexity, theoretical reconstruction and an ethic of care. This framework appreciates the plurality of SoTL ways of knowing and doing as an opportunity, opening new vistas of possibility for theory and practice.

ABSTRACTHigher education communities are becoming more diverse and seeking to create more intercultural interaction and culturally responsive pedagogies. One promising approach gaining scholarly attention is engaging students in intercultural partnership practices. We have conducted a scoping review to investigate theorisations and practices of intercultural partnership in the current literature. In doing so, we identified 19 publications that explicitly explored learner-teacher partnership practices with learners and teachers from different cultural-linguistic contexts. Drawing on both descriptive and thematic analyses, we found an emerging scholarly attention to intercultural partnership motivated mainly by a ‘what’s working’ study design with a tendency toward perceptions-based qualitative research methods. Thus, numerous benefits and challenges were identified, most overlapping with the broader partnership literature. However, there was a consistent undercurrent of culturally situated beliefs that shaped and complicated learner-teacher power dynamics. We encourage future research to focus on the process of intercultural partnership that contributes collective understanding about the unique power dynamics in such practices. Drawing on existing theories of translation and intercultural communication, we can develop new insights that advance the intercultural partnership theory-practice nexus.

ABSTRACTLearner-teacher relationships have a profound impact on teaching and learning quality with many universities focusing on relationship-rich educational experiences. Engaging students as partners (SaP) has emerged as a way of enhancing learner-teacher relationships with research reporting numerous benefits and challenges. In this article, we address a worrisome challenge identified in a recent scoping review that Confucianism is an obstacle to pedagogical partnership in Asian countries, specifically, in China. Acknowledging the many global influences shaping Chinese higher education and the long history documenting the contested interpretations and application of Confucian philosophy, we speak back to the findings of the scoping review by challenging the narrow view expressed about Confucianism. Our aim is to demonstrate that Confucian educational values are not the purported barrier some have suggested through illuminating axiological overlaps between historical Confucian educational values and modern SaP values commonly evoked in the literature. In doing so, we critically reflect on the influence of Confucian educational values in contemporary Chinese education and posit that cultural scripts offer a generative lens to examine culture in partnership practices. Importantly, moving beyond essentialising enables new opportunities for research and practice to arise as partnership praxis translates, evolves, and adapts across and within dynamic cultures.

ABSTRACTStudents as partners (SaP) is gaining attention in higher education (HE) as universities worldwide rethink pedagogical practices through a relationship-rich lens. Many studies have examined partnership practices, conceptions of learner-teacher partnerships and its application in various (mainly anglophone) contexts. However, relatively few studies have explored SaP issues in non-anglophone contexts (e.g., China). In this study, we interviewed 20 lecturers at a Chinese university to understand how they perceived the role of students in teaching and learning. Our reflexive thematic analysis found that many lecturers were open to, and some already practising forms of, partnership practices. But pragmatic, structural and cultural issues caused hesitation, particularly the cultural heritage of Confucian education and global HE competition drivers rewarding research outputs over teaching practices. This study is an initial step in exploring academics’ perceptions of SaP in a changing Chinese HE system with a strong policy focus on student-centred approaches.

ABSTRACTThe necessity of incorporating technologies into higher education has been met with a movement towards large-scale, institutional approaches to blended learning. This article reports on a qualitative study of academic learning experiences in the early implementation stage of an institutional approach to blended learning at a research-intensive university. We conducted focus groups with ten academics involved in the early phase of an institutionally driven blended learning initiative. Thematic analysis revealed that academics cared for students’ perspectives and being able to feed it back into their practices drove the blending process, but they were de-motivated by a lack of agency in designing and implementing their courses. Academics were also concerned about the effectiveness of blending for student learning and did not feel cared for by the university. A lack of collaborative dialogue left academics struggling to adjust. Through a lens of an ethic of care, we highlight the danger of a ‘care-less’ climate that impedes professional learning and promotes inefficacy and cynicism. We argue for a need to change top-down approaches to implementing blended learning; to develop policies that consider the impact on academic needs and appreciate their value as human beings, and through developing supportive relationships that enable individuals to innovate and have agency to drive the process for the betterment of student learning.

ABSTRACTEngaging students as pedagogical partners aspires to reposition students with more agency within universities as egalitarian learning communities. The growing literature reports numerous beneficial outcomes of such positioning, yet many partnership opportunities are limited to small numbers of selected students in extra-curricular, quality-assurance efforts. Understanding how partnership can reach into the classroom space affords opportunities to expand both practices to more students and theorisations of partnership beyond the extra-curricular realm. Our study investigates how final-year undergraduate students experienced the shift toward partnership in the classroom. Thematic analysis of focus group conversations surfaced four interrelated themes that shared many similarities with existing literature, yet diverged in regards to the central place of conflict students navigated as power dynamics shifted. Conflict manifested as both internal (within individual students) and interpersonal (among students and between students and the teacher). We argue for deeper attention to conflict, including its generative potential, in partnership practices.

ABSTRACTEngaging with students as partners (SaP) in learning and teaching is fundamental about quality learner-teacher relationships. It is a growing and contested arena of pedagogical practice that is dominated by western scholarship. Seeking to expand understanding of partnership approaches, we conducted a scoping review guided by the question: what is known from the current literature about SaP practices and theorisations in Asia? The review identified 18 studies with half published in the last two years and a high frequency of citations to a limited number of western scholars. This signals that partnership in Asia is in its infancy and influenced by western practices. Yet, Asian scholars raised distinct cultural considerations that positioned Confucianism as an obstacle to learner-teacher relationships through partnership praxis. We outline implications to guide future research into student-teacher relationships in Asia that evoke broader interpretations of Confucianism that are seemingly more compatible with partnership praxis.

ABSTRACTChinese universities are actively pursuing cross-border collaborations in the form of transnational higher education programmes. Our study captures the experiences of Chinese students to illuminate how they navigate their learning journeys in a China-Australia articulation programme. To communicate the complexity of learning in modern transnational higher education programmes, we employed activity theory as the theoretical framework to explore cross-cultural contradictions shaping students’ experiences of learning. Assessment, programme rules, teaching strategies, and class and campus settings created contradictions that students had to negotiate as in-between learning spaces. We argue that cross-system contradictions play important roles in transnational higher education programmes. Therefore, instead of seeking to eliminate these contradictions or smooth cross-educational differences, these contradictions should be leveraged as learning opportunities to enrich transnational higher education programmes.

ABSTRACTA body of literature on students as partners (SaP) in higher education has emerged over the last decade that documents, shares, and evaluates SaP approaches. As is typical in emerging fields of inquiry, scholars differ regarding how they see the relationship between the developments in SaP practices and the theoretical explanations that guide, illuminate, and situate such practices. In this article we explore the relationship between theory and practice in SaP work through an analysis of interpretive framing employed in scholarship of SaP in teaching and learning in higher education. Through a conceptual review of selected publications, we describe three ways of framing partnership that represent distinct but related analytical approaches: building on concepts; drawing on constructs; and imagining through metaphors. We both affirm the expansive and creative theorising in scholarship of SaP in university teaching and learning and encourage further deliberate use and thoughtful development of interpretive framings that take seriously the disruptive ethos and messy human relational processes of partnership. We argue that these developmental processes move us toward formulating theories of partnership praxis.

Student success is of the upmost importance across the global higher education sector with a wealth of rich scholarship demonstrating the complexity of influences and factors that shape success. This article acknowledges that complexity and focuses on how students perceive, and partner in, shaping notions of their learning success through an analysis of two in-depth case studies. I draw on the theoretical framework of students as partners in learning and teaching. Broader implications are articulated followed by a specific focus on cross-cultural partnership from the perspective of a Chinese student partner. I argue that higher education scholars researching student success and learning outcomes should take seriously the perceptions of students to inform practice and policy, while also partnering with students in our own research to more genuinely comprehend the complexities of student success.

ABSTRACT‘Early career’ in academia is typically defined in terms of research capability in the five years following PhD completion, with career progression from post-doctoral appointment to tenure, promotion and beyond. This ideal path assumes steady employment and continuous research development. With academic work increasingly casualised, experiences of ‘early career’ are changing and definitions in use by institutions and research bodies do not reflect the lived experiences of early career academics (ECAs). This paper presents five collective narratives and a thematic analysis of survey data from 522 ECAs in three Australian universities. The results offer insights into the diverse experiences of the early stages of academic careers and provide an opportunity to reconsider current definitions. We argue that the employment context in higher education makes it crucial to consider scholars’ self-definitions alongside existing objective indicators to redefine early career in academia.

ABSTRACTHigher education policies are increasingly focused on graduate learning outcomes, which infer an emphasis on, and deep understanding of, curriculum development across degree programs. As disciplinary influences are known to shape teaching and learning activities, research situated in disciplinary contexts is useful to further an understanding of curriculum development. In the life sciences, several graduate learning outcomes are underpinned by quantitative skills or an ability to apply mathematical and statistical thinking and reasoning. Drawing on data from a national teaching project in Australia that explored quantitative skills in the implemented curricula of 13 life sciences degree programs, this article presents four program-level curricular models that emerged from the analysis. The findings are interpreted through the lens of discipline-specific research and general curriculum design theories to further our understanding of curriculum development for graduate learning outcomes. Implications for future research and to guide curriculum development practices in higher education are discussed.

Abstract:In the global higher education sector, government accountability initiatives are increasingly focused on degree-level competencies that may be expected from university graduates. The purpose of this paper was to examine the extent to which SoTL reflects this increased interest in student learning across the degree program. Articles (N=136) published in three international SoTL journals, over the past three years, were systematically reviewed using a framework that concentrated on the extent to which they reflected a focus of (a) teaching-emphasis versus learning-emphasis and (b) unit-level (subject, course) versus degree-/program-level. Our analysis indicated that the majority of SoTL publications (47%) were focused at the level of a single unit with an emphasis on teaching practice; in contrast, only a small minority of SoTL publications (9%) were focused at the level of the overall degree with an emphasis on learning processes. Drawing on our review, we highlight SoTL publications that exemplify the inquiry into student learning at the level of the degree program and offer questions to guide future SoTL inquiries.