Developing new academic developers: doing before being?

Abstract

A small group of new academic developers reflected on their induction into the profession and wondered if things could have been done differently. The researchers decided to question the directors of three tertiary academic development units about how they recruited new developers, what skills and competences they looked for and how they inducted new appointees into the role. This article interrogates the interview data, employing Winter's 'dilemma analysis' to tease out the ambiguities, judgments and problems inherent in the issues of employing new academic developers. Finally, the authors discuss ways of enhancing the induction experience for new academic developers.

New practices in doing academic development: Twitter as an informal learning space

“…It is these ambiguities (Clegg, 2009;Kensington-Miller et al, 2012;Manathunga, 2006) that have led to finding new ways of working, in this case accessing Twitter as a conversational platform that enables professional local and global connections. We have found that the inbetween zone we inhabit as academic developers is enhanced and positively disrupted through our use of Twitter because old hierarchical ways of working are navigated more easily or even bypassed, thus allowing for unexpected opportunities.…”

“…In academic development, one way of working involves a disposition of openness (Clegg, 2009;Kensington-Miller et al, 2012) and having an interest in learning from others through networking and sharing. In her reflection, Author C noticed that she has 'conversations and relationships with people' and that we have these 'online and through time'.…”

“…Illustrating this position is the way in which, academic developers can straddle a line between meeting the often abstract 'learning needs' of students or supporting academic staff who are juggling multiple demands placed upon them, while on the other side not being the enforcement arm of the university's quality expectations. (Kensington-Miller, Brailsford, & Gossman, 2012, p. 128) Kensington-Miller et al (2012) highlight different issues from Manathunga (2006) and Clegg (2009) but similarly intriguing problems attached to the work of academic development in relation to those newly recruited to academic roles. Accentuated are the ambiguities, judgments, and problems academic developers encounter, along with issues associated with the formation of their own academic identities.…”

Academic developers developing: aspects of an expanding lifeworld

“…However, there are comparatively fewer contributions on how we develop the knowledge and skills for the practice we engage in. Some articles showcase individuals' paths into academic development work and identities (Fyffe, 2018;Jessop et al, 2018;Kensington-Miller et al, 2015), while Kensington-Miller et al (2012) explored whether 'there is a best way to develop the next generation of academic developers ' (p. 131) through interviews with directors of educational developmentand the simple answer was 'no'. But the need for professional development opportunities was strongly argued.…”

Towards shaping the field: theorising the knowledge in a formal course for academic developers

“…We initiated this course because we share a concern with many seasoned academic developers from around the world about the need to ensure that novices are inducted into the field in ways that are much more systematic than that has been the case up to now (see, for example, Kensington-Miller, Brailsford, &Gossman, 2012 andQuinn &Vorster, 2014). Academic development (AD) work is varied, specialised and complex.…”