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At a time when the context of teaching in higher education is difficult for many number of factors such as: reduced funding, changing demographics of students and demands to teach in flexible times and spaces, there are also higher levels of quality control, transparency and accountability over teaching which are exerted by institutions. This paper reframes these demands and difficulties to reclaim the disciplinary expertise of the academic as teacher and following Palmer sees teaching as an entanglement of ‘beings’: the teachers, the learners and the subject and explores what it means to be a teacher within these relationships. We argue for a relational pedagogy in which embodied teaching is guided by listening for and to the subject. Wishing to be consistent in the paper with its theme, we adopt a subject-centred approach. And since our core subject in this paper is teaching, we necessarily include reflections on teaching experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Higher education is understood to play a critical role in ongoing processes of social transformation in post-apartheid South Africa through the production of graduates who are critical and engaged citizens. A key challenge is that institutions of higher education are themselves implicated in reproducing the very hierarchies they hope to transform. In this paper, I reflect critically on my experiences of a course aimed at transforming teaching through transforming teachers. In this paper, I foreground my own positionality as a white female educator as I draw on feminist theorising to reflect on my experiences as a learner in the Community, Self and Identity course. I suggest that we need to teach in ways that are more cognisant of the complexities of the constraints on personal freedom in the past if we are to contribute to the development of social justice in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I draw attention to a lively and accessible way of helping academics to make sense of their practice as teachers. First, I define ‘collaborative close reading’ and ‘teaching texts’. Then I invite the reader to eavesdrop on three (lightly fictionalised) reading sessions. Finally, I suggest some guidelines for facilitators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent and current changes in higher education have been both top-down and bottom-up, i.e. regulation and control measures from authorities on one hand and increasing numbers of international students on the other. This has led to a dilemma between unification and diversification. There is a marked pressure towards more testing, more streamlining and less autonomy. This development is caused by both top-down regulation and increasing diversity in the student body. This paper will examine the consequent impact on pedagogy and assessment, current practices and educational philosophies. We aim to ask questions pertinent to the substantial values and goals of our higher education institutions and to begin a discussion of the what, why and how of the renewal process. In particular, it discusses the effects in relation to teacher and learner autonomy in an intercultural classroom with multiple languages, expectation and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues for situating today's students as ‘global citizens’, emphasisingself-in-the-worldidentity overact-in-the-worldagency. It draws upon a three-year investigation into the lived-experience of sojourning UK undergraduate students, which surfaced examples of significant learning among new communities of practice. Their experiences of crossing learning thresholds is presented as change to the lifeworld, and argued to have enhanced their sense ofself-in-the-world. Because primary sites of learning identified within the narratives were within inter-subjective encounters outside the host culture and beyond what was planned within their mobility programmes, I suggest that similar learning might be enabled among diverse campus communities at home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As higher education embraces the ideologies of the market, educators are being asked to teach evermore students with fewer resources. Running counter to the trend of marketization, a decentralized group of educators are taking advantage of Web 2.0 technologies (including Facebook, Twitter, and blogging platforms such as Wordpress, etc.) to collaborate online to share teaching resources, support one another, and improve pedagogy. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are online collections of pedagogical content/media that are freely distributed. In addition to resources, communities of educators are coming together to support one another and provide informal mentoring in what we call Online Teaching Community Networks (OTCNs). We review how OERs and OTCNs are forming within the discipline of sociology to illustrate the potential both have to improve pedagogy and support teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The prevalence of racism andracial microaggressionson college campuses is discussed, as well as the negative effects of these occurrences for students of color. An important teaching tool for changing white students' attitudes about racism is presented with an empirical evaluation of its effectiveness. Students read McIntosh's list of White Privileges rating their agreement that each item is a White Privilege in modern US society. Pre-test and post-test questionnaires revealed that white students became more sensitive to issues of racism after this experience. Specifically, these students became more likely to agree that: racism occurs today, racism affects their behavior, they personally benefit from White Privilege, whites in modern society can be viewed as racist, and that they reported that they would be more likely to join student organizations or attend campus events focusing on reducing racism. Regression analyses identified examples of White Privileges with the greatest effect. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]