Academic development and educational developers: perspectives from different European higher education contexts

Developing teacher educators in the era of the ‘smart worker’

“…Through this process, the academic development team strives to address the specific professional development needs of teacher educators. However, the breadth of the work of the academic developers at CDU means they are often spread very thinly and find it challenging to do this successfully, which creates a degree of tension commonly experienced by staff engaged in these types of roles (Little & Green, 2012;Napoli, et al, 2010). This tension is heightened if the needs and priorities of the teacher educators are not congruent with those of the university's professional development agenda.…”

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Higher Education Advances

“…SNS" may also enable access to information, new ideas and connection with others around the world who share mutual interests and goals (Lock, 2006). There is acceptance across the higher education sector that that specialist knowledge and skills are required to carry out strategic development work and that the role of the academics (educational/faculty) are changing within the academic profession (Di Napoli, et al, 2010;Schroeder et al 2010). There are pressures on university teachers to change and adapt their pedagogies to include social media and digital devices.…”

Visualizing strategic change in an educational development centre with product-based analysis

“…PBA has been found useful in these ways from its first application, contributing to Reid and Marshall's (2009) call for approaches that help to effect change within complex contexts. PBA could also assist in the exploration of the role and contribution of EDCs and their staff within institutions as called for by Di Napoli et al (2010). PBA encourages EDCs such as the dispersed case study centre to reconceptualize their role and ways of working as called for by Holt, Palmer and Challis (2011).…”

“…Alternatively, the EDC may be characterized by its span of remit (Blackmore & Castley, 2006), by its position on the 'service-academic spectrum' (Di Napoli et al, 2010, p. 15) or by the almost random result of 'organisational volatility' (Gosling, 2009, p. 11). Over time, an evolution may be perceived within an EDC which may begin with the comparative simplicity reported by Moses (1985, p. 76) who was able to state that '[t]he main purpose of units is, generally speaking, to improve the quality of teaching and learning in a particular institution'; through a more self-aware role such as that controversially proposed by Badley (1998, p. 71) who suggested that educational development's purpose was to 'arrest the drift of teaching and research away from each other and, … to some extent, subvert the managerial nature of the modern university'; to an instrumental role as diversely pictured by Di Napoli et al (2010) with the EDC variously located (physically, politically and financially) within its host institution.…”

“…The need for suitable approaches to support strategic change has been expressed repeatedly in this journal. For example, Reid and Marshall (2009);Di Napoli, Fry, Frenay, Verhesschen and Verburgh (2010);and Holt, Palmer and Challis (2011) each in their own way, argue the need for new ways of clarifying the strategic position and of responding to it imaginatively and proactively. PBA is therefore offered as a new tool in the 'toolbox' of strategic analysis techniques.…”