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In this article, we examine the entrepreneurial self as a response to prevailing neoliberalism in higher education. We draw on positioning theory to explore a case study of an academic language and learning (ALL) advisor at an Australian university. ALL advisors work closely with students and academic teaching staff to develop teaching and learning practices across institutions. On the basis of the analysis, we argue that the adoption of entrepreneurial subjectivity amongst ALL advisors, although highly responsive to conditions within institutions, is not conducive to the ongoing development of teaching and learning in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While cross-cultural student voice has led to transformations in education, research is scarce about the interplay between student voice, culture, and power. For this reason, student voice informs this study to investigate the benefits and constraints of curriculum co-design with respect to teacher power and higher education culture in Iran. The researcher-teacher deployed qualitative methods for data collection: field notes, students' journals, class recordings, and open-ended questionnaires. The study presents varied findings in implementing student voice: some students took on roles as teachers, while others displayed resistance. This highlights that the way students are repositioned in education is culture-sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly publications are a key component of academics' development in their roles as teachers and researchers. Writing groups seem to be effective to accompany this process as participants share their texts to improve them through peer feedback. To help academic developers in the understanding and implementation of faculty writing groups, a detailed analysis of what members talk about during their meetings was carried out with three Ecuadorian writing groups, complemented by in-depth interviews. Results show that in all groups most interactions focused on their common goal, the text and comments, and the organization of their meetings, supported by the facilitator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing an institution's research culture is a challenge that is especially pressing given its prioritisation in the context of contemporary university performance. This paper discusses how academic development teams working with researchers can build meaningful institutional research culture through conceiving of researcher cohorts as members of an organisation-wide community of practice. It focuses on supported development of social media knowledge and skills through a programme that synthesises digital practices, institutional and digital literacies, and identity formations. I argue that this informed, generative approach to building an academic community's digital literacy acts as a catalyst to develop stronger institutional research culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to the issue in which the editor discusses articles on topics such as how academics learn about teaching in higher education, the use of microblogging service Twitter to support informal learning, and conversations between academic colleagues regarding teaching.

The University of Helsinki established a Teachers’ Academy to reward excellence in teaching. This study focuses on teachers’ significant networks and their meaningful conversations about teaching and learning before the establishment of the Teachers’ Academy. The research data consisted of answers to open-ended questions, and were examined using social network analysis. The teachers’ network consisted of significant relations with (1) colleagues and other teachers, (2) peers in pedagogical courses and pedagogical experts, (3) students, and (4) family members and friends. The conversations with different parties varied in nature, content and the level of confidentiality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Engaging in informal activities, like conversations with colleagues, is one way that professionals can learn within workplace contexts. Informal conversations present opportunities for academics to learn about teaching. The current study investigated academics’ experience of informal conversations, and their experience of the relations between conversations and one formal development program. Semi-structured interviews with 30 individual academics were conducted and the transcripts analysed using the constant comparative method associated with grounded theory. This analysis provided evidence that conversations play a developmental role in supporting academics to learn about teaching from colleagues, and these conversations can reinforce the learning from a formal development program. The results of this study suggest roles for academic developers in encouraging informal conversations about teaching, and building constructive relations between formal and informal development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Early career academia is a challenging time, particularly as academics are facing increasing pressures to excel across a range of areas. Boyer argued for the ‘true scholar’ versed in the overlapping areas of scholarship in research, teaching, integration and engagement. Academic developers have an important role to play in assisting the transition to academia, particularly as the diverse pathways leading to academia often mean limited knowledge or skills in curriculum development, teaching or assessment of learning. In a quantitative study, self-identified early career academics from three Australian universities reported attitudes and perceptions of teaching and research, and involvement in academic development. The implications of their responses for academic developers are discussed in terms of institutional and disciplinary differences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although there are programs to prepare doctoral students for how to teach in post-secondary education, the neophyte academic must still adjust to the specific context of a new position. This transition is often characterized by multiple adjustments and corresponding anxiety of moving from the familiar role of graduate student to a new one as faculty member. While the first five years is described as a time of stress and discovery, there are discernible patterns of growth and role integration during this period. This paper outlines how seven pre-tenure professors developed as university teachers. Drawing on Kelly's personal construct theory and Kegan's developmental constructivism, I describe developing a teacher identity as similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning-centred education (LCE) has the potential to meet the diverse needs and circumstances of a multidisciplinary faculty cohort enrolled in a certificate programme on teaching and learning by engaging participants in a learning community, and by drawing upon a wide range of appropriate teaching strategies to facilitate learning and development of student abilities. Action research design was employed to examine the theory-practice relationship of LCE within the UBC Faculty Certificate Programme on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education . Research data, both quantitative and qualitative, collected over a 12-month period, suggest that a multidisciplinary faculty cohort exhibits diverse learning styles, and that individual faculty members are at different stages in developing a scholarly approach to teaching and learning. Furthermore, data suggest that LCE can be used to organise a faculty certificate programme around teaching and learning issues relevant to university faculty and that some structuring of the LCE environment can assist in the attainment of course learning outcomes while engaging faculty as active participants in their personal developmental process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part-time teachers represent a growing challenge to universities' quality assurance and developmental processes. This paper describes an attempt to meet this challenge through the adoption of 'teaching circles' (TCs) in four contrasting case-study schools. Analysis of outcomes enables identification of the variables affecting the apparent success of TCs as a strategy, some of which are associated with the particularities of context. Underlying these particularities, however, the general question of how participants come to feel 'ownership' of change initiatives emerges as a central issue. Three inter-related processes are shown to be involved: leadership, attribution of causation and social integration. The paper concludes that this analysis has implications beyond the TC project and provides both key practical pointers and, potentially, a useful analytical tool for researchers studying programmes of organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper two recent ideas are used to describe an approach to judging the teaching of individuals or small teams of university teachers. The first idea builds on research which shows that good teaching is oriented towards, and is related to, high quality student learning. The second is that good teaching is scholarly. These ideas are at the heart of what might constitute a description of competence in teaching, and both are underpinned by the realization that teaching involves much more than what happens in a classroom or on-line: it includes planning, compatibility with the context, content knowledge, being a learner, and above all, reflection and a way of thinking about teaching and learning. It is argued that judging good teaching involves the effective application of a combination of these qualitative elements in the teaching approach and the quantitative dimension – about how well the teacher is carrying out this approach. It is also argued that unless the criteria being used to judge university teaching are consistent with the criteria being used to develop teaching (for example through formal teaching in higher education courses) little will be achieved through such activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the tensions between the various work activities performed by academics at England's University of Sheffield. Understanding in the academic community of the work of an academic; Extent to which different disciplinary backgrounds influenced perspectives on academic practice; Sensitivity to the needs of colleagues.