Writing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Articles for Peer-Reviewed Journals

Abstract

LOCATE: There are many general books and articles on publishing in peer-reviewed journals, but few specifically address issues around writing for scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) journals. One of the challenges of beginning to write about SoTL is that most scholars have become interested in exploring teaching and learning issues in higher education (HE) alongside their disciplinary interests and have to grapple with a new literature and sometimes unfamiliar methods and genres as well. Hence, for many, as they write up their SoTL projects, they are simultaneously forging their identities as SoTL scholars.
 FOCUS: We unpack the process of writing SoTL articles for peer-reviewed journals with the goal of supporting both new and experienced SoTL scholars (faculty/academics, professional staff, and students) as they nurture and further develop their voices and their SoTL identities and strive to contribute to the enhancement of learning and teaching in HE.
 REPORT: We pose three related sets of overarching questions for consideration when writing SoTL articles for peer-reviewed journals followed by heuristic frameworks for publishing in five specific writing genres (empirical research articles, conceptual articles, case studies of practice, reflective essays, and opinion pieces).
 ARGUE: Using the metaphor of being in conversation, we argue that writing is a values-based process that contributes to the identity formation of SoTL scholars and their sense of belonging within the SoTL discourse community.

Recognizing students’ expertise and insights in expanding forms of academic writing and publishing about learning and teaching

“…When we talk about genres, we mean the kind or form of writing chosen by an author, such as an empirical research article, a reflective essay, a conference paper, or a blog. We have argued elsewhere Healey, Matthews, & Cook-Sather, 2019, 2020, as have Mercer-Mapstone and Abbot (2020), for the benefits of valuing a wide range of genres in writing about learning and teaching. Here we argue that valuing a wide range of genres is especially important for students.…”

The Scholarship of Critique and Power

“…The shift from a systematic review to the development of a conceptual framework occurred after discovering a lack of discussion of issues of power in relationship to critique and feedback. The heuristic publication framework developed by Healey, Matthews, and Cook-Sather (2019) describes the importance of conceptual papers in offering a new perspective on existing theorizations to advance and expand the scholarly conversation about teaching and learning.…”

Writing about Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

“…The metaphor of writing as contributing to and creating public conversations resonates with us, as we discuss in our Teaching & Learning Inquiry article (Healey, Matthews, and Cook-Sather 2019), and we are encouraged to see it deeply incorporated in a relatively new framework for information literacy (ACRL 2016).…”

“…While there may be a dearth of dialogue about writing in, about, and for the academy in general, the lack of guidance for writing about learning and teaching in particular is what inspired the three of us to compose an article entitled "Writing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Articles for Peer-Reviewed Journals" (Healey, Matthews, and Cook-Sather 2019). Two things happened as we drafted that piece for publication.…”

“…To that end, we come back to a set of interrelated questions published in our Teaching & Learning Inquiry article (Healey, Matthews, and Cook-Sather 2019).…”