Social Network Perspectives Reveal Strength of Academic Developers as Weak Ties

Social network perspectives acknowledge the influence of disciplinary cultures on academics' teaching beliefs and practices with implications for academic developers. The contribution of academic developers in 18 scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) projects situated in the sciences are explored by drawing on data from a two-year national project in Australia within a case study research design. The application of a social network lens illuminated the contribution of eight academic developers as weak ties who infused SoTL knowledge "within" teams. Two heuristic cases of academic developers who also linked "across" networks are presented. Implications of social network perspective are discussed.