From anxiety to empowerment: a Learning Community of University Teachers

Increasing numbers of 'teaching-only' staff are being appointed in higher education institutions in the UK. At one research-intensive university, a new category of academic staff was recently introduced: University Teachers, who are required to engage in scholarly activity as part of their...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTeaching in higher education Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 273 - 284
Main Authors MacKenzie, Jane, Bell, Sheena, Bohan, Jason, Brown, Andrea, Burke, Joanne, Cogdell, Barbara, Jamieson, Susan, McAdam, Julie, McKerlie, Robert, Morrow, Lorna, Paschke, Beth, Rea, Paul, Tierney, Anne
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 01.06.2010
Routledge
Subjects
Attitude Change
College Faculty
Communities of Practice
Content Analysis
Focus Groups
Foreign Countries
Instructional Improvement
Learning Community
Reflection
Scholarship
Self Efficacy
Social Capital
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher Empowerment
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Transformative Learning
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
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Summary:Increasing numbers of 'teaching-only' staff are being appointed in higher education institutions in the UK. At one research-intensive university, a new category of academic staff was recently introduced: University Teachers, who are required to engage in scholarly activity as part of their conditions of employment. For many this scholarly activity equates to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). In an attempt to support this growing body of staff in their engagement with SoTL, a year-long Learning Community (LC) was formed. This paper outlines the activities of the LC and presents the outcomes of a collaborative project to explore its members' experiences. We describe the developmental process of LC membership and consider the parallels between our findings and theories of social capital and transformative learning. We conclude with a consideration of how LCs might be used as an engaging form of academic staff development.
ISSN:1356-2517
1470-1294
DOI:10.1080/13562511003740825