#LTHEchat

Join us on Wednesday 30th of September at 8.00pm (GMT/BST) with our guest contributor, Colum Cronin of Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, (@columfromcork.bsky.social). This #LTHEChat on BlueSky will explore how the design of time and space shapes student engagement, participation and belonging.

When students don’t engage, we tend to look at the student first. Why didn’t they come? Do they care enough? Are they motivated? But perhaps we are looking for reasons in the wrong place.

Before we ask what’s happening with the student, it might be worth looking at the architecture around them.

Not just the physical space, but the design of the experience: when something happens, where it happens, what else sits alongside it, how much time people have, what participation requires, and what the environment tells them is important.

Some students have lost interest, and no timetable will change that. In the UK, the proportion of undergraduates attending all their scheduled classes fell from 63% in 2006 to 48% in 2025 (Turner & Stephenson, 2026). It would be easy to read that as a generation that has stopped caring. Yet the same report finds that in-person contact is still central to a good experience.

So why aren’t they in the room? A Guardian callout asked students exactly that a couple of years ago (Otte, 2024). Many talked about paid work getting in the way. Others had worked out that with online lectures, they could watch recordings in less time than attending live and still get the grade without being there. One first-year student described how hard it was to make friends when “you don’t know who will show up”. We cannot control rising rents or the cost of living, which puts additional pressure on many students to prioritise paid work. A timetable that leaves no gaps for anything outside the classroom, alongside limited opportunities to meet people outside of their course group, or to engage with clubs and societies, includes elements of the academic architecture that we can influence. Students make choices, but they do so within a week we have designed. 

“Hidden curriculum” usually makes people think of the unwritten rules of academic life, like how to email a lecturer or what office hours are actually for. I propose stretching it to include something more concrete: the timetable, the gaps between classes, the sequence of early experiences, and even the layout of the campus. We tend to treat these as administrative decisions, but they are signals that students read. The timetable teaches students whether their time is valued, whether connection is expected, and whether the institution sees them as members or as attendees. Together these elements make up what I think of as the hidden curriculum of time and space, the unspoken lessons students learn about their value and their place in the institution.

You see it most clearly with commuters. In Ireland, Eurostudent VIII found an average one-way journey time of 52 minutes for students living with their parents, compared with 17 minutes for those in student accommodation (Erskine and Harmon, 2023). Across a twelve-week semester, that difference is about 70 hours. In England, students travelling 45 minutes or more each way were more likely than others to report practical, academic and social problems, and to miss out on the wider student experience (Savanta, 2026). Add part-time work or caring responsibilities, and time on campus stops being elastic. It gets planned and rationed against bus schedules, train times, and lost shifts.

Some of that disconnection shows up as loneliness. Citing the work of Dr Gareth Hughes, Morgan and Gilani (2026) have recently argued that feeling lonely during a big transition is normal, and that universities should make connecting possible rather than treating student loneliness as a problem to fix. I agree. My argument isn’t really about loneliness. It’s about opportunity. A student cannot join a society whose meeting time clashes with the last bus home. We can’t shorten the bus route, but we do have some say over what happens in the middle of the day. Anything scheduled at the end of the day risks losing commuters who are already watching the clock. But there is something we can do in the middle of the day: create space for the incidental conversations that tend to get squeezed out by a full timetable. We can think about what happens between things, not just the things themselves. If a student travels 90 minutes to campus and then moves from one lecture to another with barely enough time to cross the building and find the next room, and with no break in which to talk to anyone, it becomes harder to argue that the journey was worthwhile.

Earlier this year, the Irish Government proposed asking institutions to examine whether classes could be condensed into fewer days to reduce commuting (Burne, 2026). At first glance, it sounds compassionate, and it would certainly mean less time on the road. But it raises a more interesting question: what are we asking students to come to campus for? If the campus is somewhere students mainly come for lectures and leave straight afterwards, fewer days may well look like a win. If it’s also where friendships form, societies meet, tutors become familiar faces and ideas get tested, fewer days mean fewer opportunities for those things to happen. We’ve invested heavily in student spaces and informal learning hubs, and I’m glad we have done so. But space without time is just furniture. More events won’t fix that if there are no gaps in the week to go to them. 

At Marino Institute of Education, a small college of education in Dublin, we have tried to give some of that time back to students. Every Tuesday and Wednesday, the period from noon to 1pm is protected across all undergraduate programmes as Student Life Hour. Positioned in the middle of the day, with lunch straight after, this simple change offers a predictable two-hour window twice a week to make their own. Instead of another engagement initiative, we created space and time in which engagement could happen. We simply stopped timetabling during those hours, which signalled that being on campus outside class was legitimate, and left the choice to students. As one first-year student put it, “It is on my timetable, so I can stay.” They might study or meet a friend for coffee. Clubs and societies use it too, and some that had struggled with attendance have started running regular events. Our Neurodiversity Group started meeting weekly during that hour, something an evening slot would have put out of reach for commuters. Tutors started running into students in communal spaces, and conversations that used to need an appointment just happened. And we’re seeing the knock-on effects in the broader college community. I’ve written more about this, and a couple of other changes, in Waypoint (Cronin, 2026). 

None of this is an argument for stringent compulsory attendance or against supportive approaches like lecture capture. Flexibility is what makes study possible at all for some students. I don’t have a good answer to what the equivalent of the corridor conversation looks like for students who are rarely or never on campus, and I’d like to hear from the people who design for them.

The question I’d like to bring to Wednesday is what conditions we have actually created for engagement to happen. My hunch is that much of what we call apathy may be students reading the week we’ve built for them and making sensible decisions.

References

Burne, L. (2026) ‘Accommodation crisis: Colleges to be asked to cut number of days students must be on campus’, Irish Examiner, 23 February.

Cronin, C. (2026) ‘The hidden curriculum of time and space: why belonging is designed before it is felt’,, Waypoint: A Reflective Journal of Student Advising and Development in Tertiary Education, 3, Available at: https://journal.ukat.ac.uk/waypoint/article/view/23,

Cullinan, J., & Flannery, D. (2026). ‘Commuting and college student wellbeing’. Education Economics, 34(5), 674–693. 

Erskine, S. and Harmon, D. (2023) Eurostudent Survey VIII: Report on the Social and Living Conditions of Higher Education Students in Ireland 2022. Dublin: Higher Education Authority. 

Morgan, M. and Gilani, D. (2026) ‘Part Two: From loneliness to belonging: what can universities actually do?’, HEPI Blog, 20 September.

Otte, J. (2024) ‘”I see little point”: UK university students on why attendance has plummeted’, The Guardian, 28 May.

Savanta (2026) Experiences and Risk Among Commuter Students in Higher Education. Survey for the Office for Students, 28 July.

Turner, G. and Stephenson, R. (2026) What Matters Most? 20 Years of the Student Experience. HEPI Report 200. Oxford: Higher Education Policy Institute.

Bio

Originally from Cork and based in Dublin, Colum Cronin is Student Engagement Officer at Marino Institute of Education and co-lead of the Centre for Belonging in Education. He has more than twenty years of experience across Irish higher education, with previous roles at DCU, UCD and Trinity College Dublin focused mainly on international students, and is a former board member of the Irish Council for International Students. He is currently an EdD candidate at DCU, researching the hidden curriculum of time, space and agency in student transitions.

His work starts from the idea that belonging is designed long before it is felt, and that disengagement is far more often a problem of architecture than of apathy. An award-winning podcaster and presenter, he can be found across social media @columfromcork

Join us on Wednesday, 23rd of September at 8:00pm (GMT/BST) with our guest contributor, Francis Awolowo from Sheffield Hallam University, @ifawolowo.bsky.social. This #LTHEChat on BlueSky will consider “What might higher education look like if belonging were not an accidental outcome, but an intentional part of how we teach?“

Introduction

Students can be admitted to university, attend our lectures, submit assessments, achieve good grades, and graduate, yet never truly feel that they belong.

That thought has stayed with me throughout my career as an educator.

Higher education has rightly invested considerable energy in widening participation, inclusion and student success. But I increasingly find myself asking a different question: is being included the same as belonging?

I do not think it is.

Access gets you through the door. Inclusion gives you a seat at the table. Belonging is knowing that your presence at that table matters.

For me, belonging is not simply about feeling comfortable. It is about being seen, valued and taken seriously. It is being able to bring something of yourself into a learning space without constantly wondering whether you need to become someone else to succeed.

My thinking about this has been shaped profoundly by my work with Black students and, particularly, through leading the ASPIRE programme, which sought to widen access to doctoral education. Again and again, I saw extraordinarily talented students whose challenge was not a lack of ability or ambition. Sometimes what was missing was access to relationships, networks, encouragement and that important voice saying: you can do this, and there is a place for you here.

This matters because belonging is linked to students’ engagement, persistence, and academic experiences. It is also deeply relational. Research on compassionate and inclusive pedagogy similarly reminds us that caring interactions can create psychological safety, strengthen engagement and nurture belonging.

But perhaps we need to go further.

From belonging to teaching for belonging

I am increasingly interested in what African philosophies might contribute to this conversation.

Ubuntu is often captured through the expression “I am because we are.” At its heart is an understanding of humanity as relational: who we become is shaped through our relationships with others. Educational scholarship drawing on Ubuntu has therefore emphasised interconnectedness, humaneness, social responsibility and attentiveness to others.

This challenges one assumption that can quietly underpin higher education: that success is primarily an individual endeavour.

What if learning is also something we accomplish with and through one another?

Ubuntu pedagogy offers possibilities for classrooms characterised by solidarity, cooperation, respect and coexistence rather than simply individual performance. Alongside this, I draw on Omoluabi, a Yoruba philosophical idea concerned with character, dignity, responsibility and what it means to be a good person in relationship with others.

Together with compassionate pedagogy, these ideas lead me towards a simple proposition:

Perhaps our responsibility as educators is not only to teach students what they need to know, but to create the relational conditions in which they can become who they have the potential to be.

That does not mean lowering standards.

Compassion is not the opposite of rigour.

Care is not the absence of challenge.

Belonging does not mean making students comfortable all the time.

Indeed, good education should sometimes unsettle us. It should challenge assumptions, invite disagreement and require intellectual struggle. But there is an important difference between being challenged within a community and feeling that you are constantly required to prove your right to be part of that community.

The question, then, is not whether universities should care about belonging. The more difficult question is what we are prepared to change because we care about it.

Our curriculum?

Our assessment?

Whose knowledge we recognise?

The relationships we build with students?

The way we give feedback?

How we understand academic excellence?

Or perhaps even how we understand our role as educators?

Recent work on Ubuntu continues to argue for its potential to create learning environments centred on interconnectedness and community, while work on compassionate pedagogy has similarly highlighted the challenge of translating an ethos of care into everyday institutional practice.

So, for this #LTHEchat, I would like us to imagine something together.

Not simply a more inclusive university.

But a university in which more students can genuinely say:

I am here.
I am seen.
I matter.
I belong.
And I can thrive here.

What would we have to do differently to make that possible?

Biography

Dr Ifedapo Francis Awolowo is a multi-award-winning educator, researcher and Senior Lecturer in Financial and Management Accounting at Sheffield Hallam University. A National Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow of Advance HE, his work explores belonging, compassionate pedagogy, racial equity and widening access to doctoral education. He is the project lead of ASPIRE, an award-winning programme that has supported Black students to develop research confidence, networks and pathways into doctoral study. His approach to education is informed by the African philosophies of Ubuntu and Omoluabi, placing relationships, humanity and collective flourishing at the heart of learning.

He is the author of Breaking Barriers to Doctoral Education: The ASPIRE Model for Mentorship and Racial Equity and is passionate about reimagining higher education as a place where every student can not only participate, but genuinely belong and thrive.

Join us on Wednesday, 16th September at 8:00pm (BST) with our guest contributors, Alyson Lewis (@alysonklewis.bsky.social‬) and Heather Pennington (@heatherpennington.bsky.social) for a thought-provoking BlueSky chat entitled ‘Entering into Transnational Education (TNE) partnerships potentially means new ways of thinking, being and doing… or does it?’ We will explore what effective TNE partnership working looks like in practice, whose knowledge shapes the curriculum, the challenges colleagues face, and how professional learning, recognition and reflective practice can support more equitable and responsive approaches.

Why this conversation?

Transnational Education (TNE) is an increasingly prominent feature of the higher education landscape, often framed in terms of growth, internationalisation and, inevitably, income generation. Yet beyond these drivers sits a complex and often under-examined set of pedagogical, relational and ethical considerations. Here, we invite colleagues, whether new to TNE or experienced in developing and delivering it, to pause and reflect on what it really means to work across contexts. In particular, we ask: Does entering into TNE partnerships genuinely involve new ways of thinking, being and doing, or do we sometimes reproduce familiar practices in unfamiliar settings?

What is Transnational Education (TNE) and why does it matter?

TNE is typically defined as ‘the delivery of an educational programme in a country other than that in which the awarding body is based’ (Universities UK, 2025a). ‘Host country’ or ‘Receiver’ are terms used to describe where the student is studying and ‘home country’ or ‘Provider’– are used to describe the main institutional campus which is in a different geographical location to where the student is studying (Eldridge and Cranston, 2009; Holubek, 2025). TNE can encompass a wide range of models including flying faculty, branch campuses, joint or dual awards, validation arrangements and distance learning provision to name but a few (Dai and Garcia, 2019; Smith, 2014). Regardless of the type of partnership and delivery model, they all share the following: “the movement of people, knowledge, programmes, providers, policies, ideas, curricula, projects, research and services across national or regional jurisdictional borders” (Knight, 2007, p.2). 

Here are some of the reasons as to why TNE matters. Arguably, it matters to different people for different reasons:

• transformative professional learning opportunities of living and working abroad (Smith, 2014); 
• career promotion/progression and increasing institutional visibility (Smith, 2014);
• opportunities to collaborate on research and develop intercultural learning (Liu et al. 2023);  
• economic growth to the UK – the 2026 international education strategy expects education exports to grow to £40 billion per year by 2030 (UK Government, 2026); 
• important source of financial security to universities;
• boosts a university’s branding and reputation internationally;
• positive impacts on a host country’s higher education system and skills market (Universities UK, 2025b).

The global demand for UK TNE is burgeoning “with over 650,000 students now studying UK programmes abroad – a 70% increase in the last decade” (Universities UK, 2025c). As TNE grows, so do the potential risks to quality hence the QAA’s revised UK TNE Quality Scheme.  The scheme is designed to support institutions in enhancing the quality of their TNE provision, aimed to reassure partners about the UK’s approach to quality and provides practical support in achieving high-quality TNE (QAA, 2026).

The demand for UK TNE has led to an introduction of a new TNE network launched in June 2026, hosted by Universities UK International (UUKi), aiming to be a valuable source of support for the sector. Information about joining the network can be found via the following UUKi website link. 

Experiencing TNE in practice

Flying faculty/short-term sojourners is a very common TNE delivery model and involves staff from the home country flying to the host country to deliver short, intensive teaching blocks (e.g. between 2 to 4 weeks) (Solwa et al. 2025). Alyson brings experience as a former fly-in lecturer on a TNE programme in China, where the work was, at times, “more extreme, intense and disorientating” (Smith, 2017, p.8), yet also deeply rewarding. In her current role, alongside Heather, she supports colleagues navigating TNE delivery and partnership development. Across these experiences, a consistent theme emerges: TNE can be both a significant source of professional learning and a space of uncertainty and challenge. On the one hand, it offers valuable opportunities for development, prompting educators to reflect on their pedagogic approaches, assumptions and values (Smith, 2014). On the other hand, challenges arise around communication, decision-making, curriculum design and differing expectations across contexts. Also, Smith (2014) reminds us that too often the impact on the physical body for fly-in lecturers is not recognised by institutions.

Fast-paced, intense teaching blocks can lead to students feeling overwhelmed, experiencing cognitive overload and language barriers, and having limited time to build rapport with their fly-in lecturers, thereby hindering the learning experience (Solwa et al. 2025). Despite these challenges, students value the subject expertise of the fly-in staff, the diverse student-centred approaches and are highly satisfied.  

One way of ensuring high-quality TNE provision is to prioritise the professional development of TNE staff because it involves “the negotiation of different cultural norms and pedagogical values and practices” (Tran et al. 2021, p.530). The work of Tran et al. (2021) highlight a shortage of effective formal support systems to help staff work across contexts and recommend “building teachers’ resilience in terms of emotional wellbeing to assist them in navigating transnational experiences” (ibid, p.531). Smith (2017) recommends that “it can be extremely beneficial to talk through how your transnational teaching has gone” (ibid, 2017, p.23). Evidence consistently shows that TNE staff received little preparation before, during and after their intense teaching block (Jais et al. 2015). 

A space for critical reflection

In our roles, and in collaboration with HR staff, we have facilitated pre-departure briefing sessions focusing on living and working in Central Asia and negotiating cultural norms and pedagogical practices with staff – ensuring we don’t overlook how our approaches are shaped by the specific legal, cultural and institutional contexts in which they have developed.  

In terms of post professional learning Tran et al. (2021) report that support after a TNE experience is virtually non-existent, ignored and overlooked – fly-in staff and the wider university are missing out on building upon the rich learning experiences that TNE offers. In practice, we have found that compared with the pre-departure sessions which were seen as more desirable to run we’ve not experienced the same level of commitment and support (at senior strategic levels) in running post events such as a TNE round table reflection event – which aimed to bring staff together who have contributed to the design, development and delivery of TNE to reflect, share, evaluate and contribute to future preparation and support. 

In short, professional development for TNE points to the importance of developing a more critically reflective stance; one that makes explicit the “why” behind our approaches. In doing so, we may be better positioned to adapt our practices thoughtfully, in dialogue with local contexts, rather than reproducing them unchanged.

We have found it helpful to frame this work through reflective questioning:

• What assumptions underpin my approach to teaching and inclusion?
• Which aspects of my practice are shaped by specific policy or cultural contexts?
• How might these be interpreted differently elsewhere?
• What conversations do I need to have with local colleagues and students to better understand these dynamics?

Such questions also open up broader considerations around power and knowledge:

• Whose perspectives are embedded within curricula?
• What forms of participation are privileged?
• How can we avoid positioning our own approaches as the norm?
• Why has there been a pushback to organising a round table reflection event for all staff involved with TNE?
• Why are some colleagues/departments of an institution side lined in TNE work? 

Beyond solutions: learning through dialogue

There are, of course, no simple answers to these questions. Supporting colleagues working in TNE contexts requires moving beyond prescriptive guidance towards ongoing, dialogue and collaborative forms of professional learning. It also involves recognising uncertainty, not as a necessary part of practice- something to be resolved, but as an integral part of working meaningfully across contexts.

Entering into partnerships, whether TNE or otherwise, often surfaces deeper questions about our values and practices and those of the institution we work. In this sense, TNE is not just about delivering programmes elsewhere, it is also an opportunity to learn more about ourselves, our assumptions and our ways of working. 

Join the conversation

This LTHEChat provides a space to share experiences, raise questions and learn from one another. Whether you are new to TNE or bring extensive experience, we invite you to contribute your perspectives: 

What would it mean to approach TNE work as a genuinely collaborative and evolving process?

References

Dai, K. and Garcia, J. (2019) Intercultural Learning in Transnational Articulation Programs: The Hidden Agenda of Chinese Students’ Experiences.  Journal of International Students, 9(2), 362-383. 

Eldridge, K., and Cranston, N. (2009) Managing transnational education: Does national culture really matter? Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 31(1), 67–79. 

Holubek, V. (2025). Rethinking the “Provider–Receiver” Dichotomy in Transnational Higher Education. European Education, 1–16. 

Jais, J., Smyrnios, K. X., & Hoare, L. A. (2015) Up in the air: An examination of the work–life balance of fly-in–fly-out academics. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(6), 1123–1137. 

Knight, J. (2007), ‘Crossborder Tertiary Education: An Introduction’, in Crossborder Tertiary Education: A Way Towards Capacity Development, pp. 21-46, Paris: OECD, World Bank and NUFFIC.

Liu, D., Wimpenny, K., DeWinter, A. and Harrison, P. (2023) Students’ perceptions and experiences of teaching and learning in transnational higher education in China: implications of the intercultural dialogue framework, Teaching in Higher Education, 28:7.

QAA. (2026) The UK TNE Quality Scheme [accessed 30 June 2026].

Smith, K. (2014) Exploring flying faculty teaching experiences: Motivations, challenges and opportunities. Studies in Higher Education, 39(1), 117–134.

Smith, K. (2017) Transnational education toolkit. York: Higher Education Academy. Transnational education toolkit | Advance HE (advance-he.ac.uk) [accessed 26 June 2026]. 

Solwa, B., Ayoubi, M. T., Massoud, H., Wimpenny, K., & Ayoubi, R. (2025) Benefits and drawbacks of the fly-in-faculty model in transnational education: a student-centric analysis of teaching pace, communication and faculty engagement. Cogent Education, 12(1).

Tran, L. T., Le, T. T. T., Phan, H. L. T., & Pham, A. (2021) “Induction and off you go”: professional development for teachers in transnational education. Oxford Review of Education, 47(4), 529–547.

UK Government. (2026) The UK’s international education strategy [accessed 30 June 2026].

Universities UK. (2025a). International facts and figures 2023 [accessed 30 June 2026].

Universities UK. (2025b) Developing equitable TNE partnerships: where to begin [accessed on 30.6.26].

Universities UK. (2025c). New analysis shows UK universities lead the world in delivering higher education overseas [accessed 30 June 2026].

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This LTHE chat is designed for colleagues who are both new to TNE and those with experience of developing and operationalising partnerships. Each question begins with a broader topic in bold and is an inclusive invitation to draw upon your own experiences, knowledge and perspectives – whether directly linked to TNE or from related contexts, making your contribution valid and useful to the conversation.

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Bios

Questions

Q1 – What does an effective TNE partnership look like in practice? Who should be involved in its design, delivery and review, and how can these relationships be supported?

Q2 – Whose knowledge and perspectives are represented in TNE curricula? How can partners share curricula while ensuring local relevance and sensitivity to context?

Q3 – What challenges have you experienced, or would you anticipate, when working in TNE? What practical approaches can help address them?

Q4 – How can we support colleagues who are new to TNE? What forms of professional learning and development are most useful?

Q5 – How should colleagues’ contributions to TNE be recognised and rewarded, including those working away from their home context? What is currently overlooked?

Q6 – What might meaningful reflective practice look like within TNE partnerships? How can it support shared learning and ongoing improvement?

Join us on Bluesky for #LTHEchat on Wednesday 24th June at 8pm BST with guest Abbi Shaw (@abbis.bsky.social) to discuss professional identity, recognition, and collaboration in higher education. Together, we will explore how Digital Education Specialists understand and communicate their contribution, the role of professional development and networks in shaping professional identity, and how colleagues across academic and professional services roles perceive and work alongside digital education professionals in supporting the student experience.

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Introduction

In 2022, as a Digital Education Specialist (DES) studying for an MA Education: Leading Innovation and Practice, I conducted a research study into the professional identity of DES during 2021/22. The study focused on the period in which universities were returning to campus after Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) had required teaching, learning and assessment to take place almost entirely online. More than 40 UK DES participated in a survey and 12 took part in follow-up interviews.

My findings suggested that this period exacerbated many existing complexities around DES professional identity. Participants reported challenges around visibility, recognition and influence, while the return to campus appeared to heighten some of the barriers to institutional integration that had developed during the pandemic period.

Four years on, digital education is no longer viewed as an emergency response. Blended, online and digitally enhanced learning have, in most institutions, become expected features of higher education. Yet questions remain about how the expertise of those supporting this work is recognised, understood and valued.

For this week’s #LTHEchat, I want to revisit some of the themes from that research and explore how DES professional identity is understood today, both by those who work in digital education and by colleagues across higher education. I am particularly interested in the role that continuing professional development (CPD), professional accreditation and sector networks play in helping DES articulate and communicate their contribution.

I started my research from the idea that DES often experience challenges to the formation, visibility, and perception of their identities, whether personally, institutionally, or both (Akerman, 2020; White, White & Borthwick, 2021). Whether it’s differences in the language used, or power dynamics between academic, and professional roles, it is difficult for institutions to reach, and sustain, blended learning maturity without actively ensuring DES are fully-embedded into the everyday academic space (Mihai, Questier & Zhu, 2021). A clear understanding of DES’ professional identity – both amongst DES themselves, and in their institutional context – and the ability to communicate the possibilities that identity and practice have to offer is therefore key in fostering a positive environment in which DES can best perform.

The need for DES’ professional identity to be constructed: how are we doing?

DES’ professional identity necessitates construction: it is rarely inherent (Altena et al., 2019; Scott et al., 2019; Lawrence, 2022). The work itself is often unseen, or is not perceived as actively being work: DES perform not only the production of resource and support, but also act as a translation, education, and development role which must take place between colleagues. An individual’s sense of professional identity is thus inevitably influenced by the nature and context of these interactions with colleagues (Beaton & Hope, 2022). It’s too easy for DES to be labelled “techy people”, whose indefinable work, which may or may not take place solely in binary code, is perceived as relevant only to the organisation of files and folders, and the removal of the irritating error message, rather than relevant to the classroom, the design of the assessment, and the structure and delivery of the course as a whole. The pedagogic legitimacy and inclusion afforded DES by both colleagues, and institutional structures and approaches truly matters (Watermeyer et al., 2021).

As a consequence, the need for DES to be in the committee, the steering group, the procurement panel, the many, many meetings in which the work of the modern university is done, has, previously, been difficult to evidence if an institution’s clear understanding of the nature and purpose of the role of DES has yet to be developed. Historically, whether in the literature, or my own research, the message from DES themselves has been that, either institutionally, or locally, they have found themselves critically underestimated or misunderstood by those whose understanding matters most. If it is the case that blended, online and digitally-enhanced learning are fully-established parts of normal UK Higher Education offerings, have we also fully established the purpose, presence and fullness of the DES this learning necessitates?

The potential for CPD and collegiality to support the development and projection of DES’ professional identity

A notable dimension to DES’ professional identity is its inherent connectedness (Walker & Macneill, 2015). DES’ work is fundamentally similar across UK higher education, resulting in a multitude of sector-wide networks, such as ALT and the advisory agency Jisc, as well as many regional and disciplinary networks, not to mention, of course, the online networks that events such as this very #LTHEchat develop. Engagement with such networks enhances the capacity of DES to understand themselves, and communicate in more personalised, contextual terms (Beaton & Hope, 2022), consequently fostering individual and collective professional identities (Walker & MacNeill, 2015;  Arnold, 2022).

Moving on from networks to objective, and transferable accreditations, that most commonly identified as being of benefit to DES is CMALT (Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology), awarded following peer assessment of a reflective portfolio of work. ALT recently introduced Associate, Senior, and Principal levels to facilitate career development of DES. Similarly, fellowships of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA – also available in Associate, Senior and Principal) can be useful for DES. Ostensibly designed for academic roles in UK HE, these accreditations focus on approaches to teaching, allowing DES to consider themselves and their practice academically, improving their ability to communicate in academic language (Nutt, 2022). Completing such frameworks is one of the few ways DES and other third space professionals can evidence career development in the pursuit of promotion (Shotts & Shaw, 2022). 

To access professional development, however, DES must exist in an environment that recognises the existence of relevant opportunities, and is willing to finance and accommodate them (McIntosh & Nutt, 2022). Further, DES and other third space roles often need to create their own opportunities to participate in projects and clear examples of their individual practice, as, where their possible contribution to academic work and the student experience is not understood,  they are more likely to encounter “glass walls” (Campbell-Perry, 2022:118) which prevent their collaboration with academic colleagues. 

Whilst professional portfolios and connections with the wider DES networks support the development of professional identity (White et al., 2021), the fact perception of DES relies upon the projection of a constructed identity suggests to me such engagement with professional development ought to be a priority for DES at all levels, as well as for their institutions. 

My findings were in line with the literature, in that professional development did support the development of professional identity, and, in turn, that this developed identity allowed DES to advocate for themselves, and ensure their work was more highly visible within their institution. Participants who had completed professional portfolios often appeared more confident in discussing their work, leadership and impact. They were generally better able to explain their contribution in ways that colleagues could understand. By contrast, some participants who had not engaged with these frameworks expressed frustration about how their work was perceived, while simultaneously finding it more difficult to articulate the nature of that work themselves.

This raises an interesting possibility. Professional development may not simply enhance expertise; it may also help DES communicate that expertise more effectively.

Looking ahead

My research corroborated the idea that professional identity is not something DES automatically possess. Rather, it is something they continually construct, communicate and negotiate within their institutional context. Professional networks, accreditation and reflective CPD appear to play an important role in supporting that process.

If that remains true today, investment in DES development is not simply beneficial for individuals. It may also help institutions better understand, recognise and make use of digital education expertise.

I’m keen to continue to explore whether DES have grown any closer to feeling fully situated and understood in their roles, whether CPD has played a clear role in this, and whether non-DES participants feel, themselves, clear around their DES’ colleagues role, and their overall ability to contribute, ultimately, to the student experience.

Questions

1. Would you say you have a strong sense of professional identity? What does the phrase mean to you, in the context of your role?

2. How important is others’ perception of you, in terms of your own professional identity? 

3. Have you undertaken any professional development work, such as Fellowship of the HEA, or CMALT? If so, has/how has it supported/developed your ability to communicate your work to colleagues in different areas?

4. If you are a Digital Education Specialist, do you feel your role is well-understood by your academic colleagues? If non-DES, do you have a clear understanding of your institution’s DES, and how they can support your work and contribute to student experience?

5. How have you been involved with, or involved Digital Education Specialists in, academic research or projects?

6. Has your relationship (if any) to the digital education / learning technology community changed since 2023, and if so, how?

References

Akerman, K., (2020). ‘Invisible imposter: identity in institutions’, Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 24:4, 126-130, DOI: 10.1080/13603108.2020.1734683.

Altena, Sharon, Ng, Rebecca, Hinze, Meredith, Poulsen, Simone, & Parrish, Dominique Rene (2019) ‘’Many hats one heart’: A scoping review on the professional identity of learning designers.’ In Yi Wei S, Chew, Mun C, Kah, & Alphonso, A (Eds.) Personalised Learning. 

Diverse Goals. One Heart: Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2019) Conference Proceedings. Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE), Australia, pp. 359-364.

Arnold, D., (2022). ‘Inside out and outside in: an exploration of peripheral third space.’ Third Space Perspectives. Blog. Posted 10th October 2022. https://www.thirdspaceperspectives.com/blog/inside-out-and-outside-in-an-exploration-of-peripheral-third-space.

Beaton, F. & Hope, J. (2022) ‘Exploring the Identities of Blended Professionals in Higher Education’. The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. Ed. Emily McIntosh & Diane Nutt. Routledge, London.

Campbell-Perry, S. (2022) ‘The blended professional: barriers and boundaries to collaborative institutional cultures’, in McIntosh, E. and Nutt, D. (eds.) The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. London: Routledge.

Denney, F. (2021). ‘A glass classroom? The experiences and identities of third space women leading educational change in research-intensive universities in the UK.’ Educational Management Administration & Leadership. doi:10.1177/17411432211042882.

Lawrence, J., (2022). ‘Career Trajectories in the Third Space.’ The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. Ed. Emily McIntosh & Diane Nutt. Routledge, London.

McIntosh, E. & Nutt, D., (2022). ‘Introduction and literature review.’ The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. Ed. Emily McIntosh & Diane Nutt. Routledge, London.

Nutt, D., (2022). ‘Rewarding Blended Working and Integrated Practice.’ The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. Ed. Emily McIntosh & Diane Nutt. Routledge, London.

Quinsee, S., (2022). ‘Leadership in the Third Space.’ The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. Ed. McIntosh, E. & D. Nutt. Routledge, London.

Shotts, J. & Shaw, M., (2022). ‘Recognising and Developing Talent.’ The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. Ed. Emily McIntosh & Diane Nutt. Routledge, London.

Walker, D. & MacNeill, S., (2015), Learning Technologist as Digital Pedagogue, The Really Useful Ed Tech Book, 91-106.

Watermeyer, R., Crick, T., Knight, C. & Goodall, J., (2020). ‘COVID-19 and Digital Disruption in UK Universities: Afflictions and Affordances of Emergency Online Migration.’ Higher Education 81(3):623–41. doi: 10.1007/s10734-020-00561-y.

Watermeyer, R., Crick, T. & Knight, C., (2021). Digital disruption in the time of COVID-19: learning technologists’ accounts of institutional barriers to online learning, teaching and assessment in UK universities, International Journal for Academic Development, DOI:10.1080/1360144X.2021.1990064.

White, S, White, S and Borthwick, K. (2021) Blended professionals, technology and online learning: Identifying a socio-technical third space in higher education. Higher Education Quarterly. 75: 161– 174. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12252.

Guest bio

Abbi Shaw is the Faculty Digital Education Manager for UCL Arts and Humanities, responsible for the strategic and good pedagogical use of teaching, learning, and assessment technologies across the Faculty’s broad range of disciplines. Abbi’s research interests include the professional identity of digital education specialists, and methods of effecting digital education change in UK higher education. Prior to joining UCL in 2020, Abbi, with an extensive background in vintage bookselling and digital commerce, worked in the Library and as a Learning Technologist at St. Mary’s University Twickenham. 

Join us on Bluesky for #LTHEchat on Wednesday 17th June at 8pm BST with guest Iwi Ugiagbe-Green (@profiwi.bsky.social) to reflect on how we can create brave, caring and purposeful spaces for conversations about inequalities in higher education.

Conversations about inequalities are important because, without naming inequalities, they cannot be acknowledged or addressed. Nor can their impact. For example, without naming race, racism does not exist (Kishimoto, 2018). Race is an example of a social construct: an idea that exists through collective agreement and operates as a system of power and discrimination. As American lawyer, professor and civil rights activist Professor Derrick Bell explains, ‘the reality is that we live in a society in which racism has been internalized and institutionalized’ (Bell, 1991).

Recent societal events have shown us that engaging in conversations about inequalities with intention, empathy and care is more important than ever. The ongoing and sustained injustices endured by minoritised and marginalised communities remind us of the importance of human-centred conversations, accompanied by a call to action, in understanding and addressing these inequalities. Afro-feminist scholars have explored how the philosophy of Ubuntu — ‘I am because you are’ — based on our interconnectedness with one another and the collective, can be used to mould and shape social relations that enhance, for example, race and gender justice (Tamale, 2020, pp. 221–229; Diouf et al., 2023).

What is clear is that, if our current political climate tells us anything, it is the importance of being intentional and active in listening to others with whom we might not agree, who may or may not look like us, and who may be very different from those with whom we would naturally communicate. It is important that we work together to try to come to a place of understanding, rather than simply reply.

To hold space in our universities for conversations that move us forward, we need to be intentional about adopting collective principles through which communities of care can operate. We also need to mediate difficult conversations in ways that give due regard to perspectives with which we may not agree.

We will spend an hour together sharing our experiences of mediating difficult conversations, giving space to different views, and exploring ways in which we might be able to talk about inequalities bravely. This is an opportunity to step into a space in which we may feel uncomfortable, but where we can also experience growth.

References

Bell, D. (1991) ‘Racism is here to stay: Now what?’, Howard Law Journal, 35(1), pp. 79–94.

Diouf, E., Dyer, U., Asali Ecclesiastes, A. and Gilbert, M. (2023) ‘Our Ubuntu: A Black feminist turn’, Agenda, 37(2), pp. 32–43. doi: 10.1080/10130950.2023.2229572.

Kishimoto, K. (2018) ‘Anti-racist pedagogy: From faculty’s self-reflection to organizing within and beyond the classroom’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(4), pp. 540–554. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2016.1248824.

Tamale, S. (2020) Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. Ottawa: Daraja Press.

Speaker bio

Iwi has worked in higher education since 2000. Her first ten years were in a range of financial administration and accounting roles before she transitioned into academia in 2010. Since then, she has delivered sustained educational excellence in higher education and established a track record of successfully leading innovative, impactful and strategic projects that enhance student opportunity, experience and outcomes. She is recognised nationally and internationally as an intentionally inclusive leader whose praxis is rooted in Ubuntu: ‘I am, because we are’.

Iwi describes herself as an academic activist: a positive agitator who is unapologetic in her commitment to student success. She is very proud and grateful to have recently been promoted to Professor of Equity in Education and to be the 84th Black woman professor in the UK. She was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2025.

Questions

1. What interactions do you have with people whose experiences, values or social views differ from your own? 
2. How do you mediate those difficult conversations whether in life or in your educational practice?
3. How do you create conditions of safety for your students?
4. What do you do in your practice to help students feel that they matter, belong and are taken seriously?
5. What would a genuine system of care in your university look like?
6. How do you protect your own wellbeing while engaging in emotionally demanding work around equity, inclusion and social justice?

Join us on Bluesky for #LTHEchat on Wednesday 10th June at 8pm BST with guests Emma Gillaspy (@egillaspy.bsky.social), Earle Abrahamson (@profearle17.bsky.social), Sue Beckingham (@suebecks.bsky.social) and Rose Gann (@rosegann.bsky.social) to reflect on your scholarship journeys by sharing experiences, exploring challenges and opportunities, and considering how resources like Scholarship Spotlight can support and advance your practice.

Introduction

Scholarship (Boyer, 1990; Hutchings and Shulman, 1999) can be a powerful, yet often everyday, way to enhance learning, teaching and professional practice. Yet for many of us, it can feel difficult to know where to begin…

• How do I turn my idea into a project? 
• Where can I find support? 
• What even ‘counts’ as scholarship anyway?

Scholarship Spotlight has been created to help address these challenges. Developed by a group of UK academics and funded through a small grant from the Association of National Teaching Fellows, Scholarship Spotlight brings together practical guidance, personal narratives, lessons learned, useful resources and opportunities to connect with wider scholarly networks.

Getting Into SoTL

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is often a difficult space to enter, it can feel conceptually unclear, with hidden traditions that aren’t always easy to see or access (Fanghanel et al., 2016; Godbold, Matthews & Gannaway, 2024). Even experienced academics can find themselves stepping into unfamiliar territory – becoming novices again as they begin SoTL work, often without clear signposting or support (Kim et al., 2020). These challenges sit alongside the realities of working in Higher Education right now. Time, space, and energy are often in short supply, and engaging with scholarship can feel like something we should do, but struggle to prioritise.

Scholarship for Everyone

One of the things we’ve tried to do with Scholarship Spotlight is resist the idea that scholarship is a neat, linear or obvious process. Instead we share the experiences of colleagues who have approached scholarship in different ways. Our hope is that this creates a space that feels practical, inclusive and encouraging – a place where you can find ideas and support, whatever stage you’re at in your scholarly journey

This LTHEchat is a scholarship activity in itself! It’s a chance to pause and think about your own scholarship journey. We will spend our hour together sharing experiences, navigating challenges, generating new ideas and exploring ways to move your own scholarship forward. We’re keen to hear your feedback on Scholarship Spotlight too – what works well, what might be missing, and how the resource could evolve to better support the LTHEchat community. 

Whether you’re new to scholarship, already engaged, or supporting others in their scholarly development, we hope this will be a supportive and energising conversation. 

Before the chat, please take a few minutes to explore the resource: https://scholarshipspotlight.uk/

References 

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. https://www.umces.edu/sites/default/files/al/pdfs/BoyerScholarshipReconsidered.pdf 

Fanghanel, J., Pritchard, J., Potter, J., & Wisker, G. (2016). Defining and supporting the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL): A sector-wide study. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/defining-and-supporting-scholarship-teaching-and-learning-sotl-sector-wide-study 

Godbold, N., Matthews, K. E. E., & Gannaway, D. (2024). Theorising new possibilities for scholarship of teaching and learning and teaching-focused academics. Higher Education Research & Development, 43(1), 92–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2023.2218809 

Hutchings, P., & Shulman, L. S. (1999). The scholarship of teaching: New elaborations, new developments. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 31(5), 10–15.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00091389909604218 Kim, A. S. N., Popovic, C., Farrugia, L., Saleh, S. A. F.,

Maheux-Pelletier, G., & Frake-Mistak, M. (2020). On nurturing the emergent SoTL researcher: Responding to challenges and opportunities. International Journal for Academic Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2020.1842743

About the Team

Please see an overview of our team here About Scholarship Spotlight. You can connect with most of us via Bluesky:

Earle Abrahamson https://bsky.app/profile/profearle17.bsky.social 

Sue Beckingham https://bsky.app/profile/suebecks.bsky.social

Emma Gillaspy https://bsky.app/profile/egillaspy.bsky.social

Susan Smith https://bsky.app/profile/smithysusan.bsky.social

Hannah Cobb https://bsky.app/profile/archaeocobb.bsky.social

Rose Gann https://bsky.app/profile/rosegann.bsky.social

Julie Hulme https://bsky.app/profile/juliehulme-psyc.bsky.social

Dawne Irving-Bell https://bsky.app/profile/profdawne.bsky.social

I Wilson (please connect via the links on the website above)

Questions

Q1: What kinds of activities spring to mind when you think about the term ‘scholarship’ in relation to teaching and learning?

Q2: What helps you move from an idea to actually ‘doing’ scholarship? What makes that first step easier? 

Q3: What gets in the way of engaging with scholarship and how do you (or we) work around it? 

Q4: If you were to ‘shine a spotlight’ on one moment from your scholarship experience, what would you highlight? 

Q5: Who or what has helped you feel connected in scholarship? What role do online communities (like #LTHEchat) play in your scholarly connections?

Q6: If you could design the ideal resource to support your next step in scholarship, what would it include and why?

Join us on Bluesky for the #LTHE chat on Wednesday 3 June at 8pm BST with guests Jill Dickinson (@jilldickinson.bsky.social), Monika Foster (@monika-foster06.bsky.social), and Debbie Rigby (@debbierigby.bsky.social) to discuss potential challenges and opportunities for pracademics in navigating the research culture of HE.

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Introduction

In an increasingly tricky global landscape, it has become even more important to identify opportunities for bringing together HE and external organisations in driving forward collaborations that generate impactful research and knowledge exchange. Following calls for recognising, rewarding, and championing the potential contributions that those with dual experience from practice and academia can make as part of a diverse faculty (Dickinson and Griffiths, 2024), and funding from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust (The British Academy, 2024), our research explores how ‘pracademics’ (Volpe and Chandler, 2007) renegotiate their professional identities as they seek to navigate HE research culture(s).

Context

Our research is presented against a backdrop of increasing discussion and debate around pracademia (see, for example, Hollweck et al., 2021; Dickinson and Griffiths 2024; Marcus, 2024) that raise provocative questions around professional identity(ies) within this context. These include whether staff with dual experience from practice and academia can be ‘proper’ academics (Hodgson and Garner, 2024) and why some academics might be viewed as more ‘proper’ than others (Dickinson et al., 2024). It is clear that such issues can also be compounded when HEIs seek to recruit pracademics without providing them with the support needed to make the most of their practitioner experience within their new academic working environments (Yusoff, 2026).

Pracademics’ navigations of HE research culture(s)

We are self-identified pracademics from the fields of law, business, and education respectively and are drawing on our positionalities as insider researchers (Merton, 1972) to conduct this multidisciplinary research project. We have framed our research around the following three questions:

• What do pracademics understand by the phrase ‘research culture in HE’?
• To what extent do pracademics perceive themselves as able to engage in, and navigate, the research culture within HE?
• What other factors do pracademics perceive as either supporting or inhibiting their potential to contribute to the research culture within HE?

Early findings from the analysis of survey data collected reveal themes around: conflicting priorities and tensions in sustaining dual roles and responsibilities around teaching and research; challenges in accessing institutional support, clarity, and guidance to develop confidence in conducting research; the importance of developing collegial, supportive, and inclusive environments that are characterised by shared interests and values; and questions around what might constitute becoming, and being, ‘a real academic’.

References

Dickinson, J. & Griffiths, T. (Eds). (2023). Professional Development for Practitioners in Academia: Pracademia. Springer Nature. 10.1007/978-3-031-33746-8.

Dickinson, J., Griffiths, T., Foster, M. & Johnson, S. (2024, 29 September). ‘Some academics are seen as more proper than others’. WONKHE. https://wonkhe.com/blogs/some-academics-are-seen-as-more-proper-than-others/. 

Hodgson, R. & Garner, I. (2024, 4 August). ‘Are staff with professional and industry expertise proper academics?’ WONKHE. https://wonkhe.com/blogs/are-staff-with-professional-and-industry-expertise-proper-academics/. 

Hollweck, T., Netolicky, D.M., & Campbell, P. (2021). Defining and exploring pracademia: identity, community, and engagement. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 7(1), 6-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-05-2021-0026.

Leeds Beckett University. (2026). ‘How do academics with practitioner experience renegotiate their professional identities as they navigate the research culture within Higher Education?’ Leeds Beckett University. https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/research/centre-for-justice-law-and-policy/pracademia-navigate. 

Marcus, J. (2024, 21 July). ‘‘Pracademics,’ professors who work outside the academy win new respect. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/07/21/pracademics-vocational-training-college-professors/. 

Merton, R.K. (1972). ‘Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge’. American Journal of Sociology. 78(1), 9-47. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2776569. 

The British Academy. (2024). Over £1.7 million in British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grants awarded to support SHAPE researchers. The British Academy. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/over-17-million-in-british-academyleverhulme-trust-small-research-grants-awarded-to-support-shape-researchers/. 

Volpe, M.R. & Chandler, D. (2007). ‘Resolving and Managing Conflicts in Academic Communities: The Emerging Role of the “Pracademic”’. Negotiation Journal, 17(3), 245-255. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2001.tb00239.x. Yusoff, A. (2026, 26 March). ‘The human side of the practitioner-to-academic pipeline.’ Times Higher Education.https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/human-side-practitionertoacademic-pipeline.

Speaker bios

Questions

Q1: What object(s) would you choose, and why, to represent your past, current, or future professional identity (whether as a researcher or not)?

Q2: What term(s) do you use to introduce yourself in different professional contexts, and why?

Q3: What does the phrase ‘real’ or ‘proper’ researcher mean to you?

Q4: What factors might support colleagues in feeling like ‘real’ or ‘proper’ researchers, and why?

Q5: What factors might restrict colleagues in feeling like they are ‘real’ or ‘proper’ researchers, and why?

Q6: What steps could institutions take to better support those with practitioner experience in navigating the research culture(s) that exist within HE?

Join us on Bluesky for #LTHEchat on Wednesday 27th May at 8pm BST with guests Caroline Michelle Keep (@ka81.bsky.social) to discuss why HE outreach needs to move beyond marketing events and become a clearer, more inclusive bridge between schools, universities, and students’ developmental journeys.

Introduction

Having spent most of my career in secondary education, with time in primary, secondary, and Higher Education (HE), I have spent years mapping the educational landscape in the UK. My PhD in Educational Digitisation using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) does exactly this: mapping how technology works in schools. Living at the crossroads of three different sectors: as a teacher (yes, I still teach), a researcher, and a student, I see inclusion and outreach from three different, often conflicting, worldviews.

Higher Education often talks about inclusive pedagogy, widening participation and belonging. Yet, from the school side, outreach can still feel more like a marketing event than a structural bridge into university learning. If universities want to be genuinely inclusive, outreach cannot remain a “nice-to-have”. It needs to become part of the student developmental journey: helping learners understand pathways, expectations, support structures and the shift in autonomy before they arrive.

Clear Pathways vs. Enthusiastic Joy

I have found simple things to be baffling. Why is HE outreach often just an assembly or a talk with no direct pathways? The most useful thing you can do is provide clear pathways to your courses and careers. Enthusiastic joy is insufficient if a child cannot see the way forward. In the classroom, inclusion is not a department we outsource, it is the daily management of sensory environments, cognitive load, and social communication. When HE outreach teams arrive with generic presentations, they often miss the students they claim to support. Truly inclusive outreach should meet students where they are, acknowledging specific needs, providing clear guidance, and sharing a joint vision before they arrive.

The “High-Friction” Transition

The transition to HE is a high-friction event for most students. We lose students not because they are not capable, but because the support structures in schools and HE do not communicate with each other. We need a model of “Pedagogical Outreach” where HE staff and schoolteachers collaborate to build the skills students need to survive the shift in autonomy. These shifts are particularly challenging for disabled and neurodivergent students.
In the first year of my PhD, despite being an experienced professional in education for over 20 years, I found myself overwhelmed and crying on the first day. Why? Because we still do not provide neurodivergent people with clear maps in universities. (For more information, see the paper I wrote on this experience: Keep, C. (2024) Lost in the Maze: Navigating Neurodiversity in Built Environments. Town & Country Planning).

A Structural Failure

We lack clear guidance for disabled and neurodivergent students at the PhD and Master’s levels, as if we suddenly become “able” at that stage. We don’t. There is a glaring lack of national-level organisations providing support to these students. The data backs this up. The 2025 Access Insights Report showed that while 87% of disabled students have agreed adjustments, only 44% report that those adjustments are actually delivered. Similarly, early findings from the first National Disabled Staff Survey (NDSS) in 2025, covering 837 staff across 127 institutions, exposed deep structural barriers undermining well-being and retention. While the launch of Advance HE’s Inclusive Institutions Framework is a start, proper inclusion is long overdue in the UK.

Learning from the School Practitioner

HE can learn from the “practitioner’s agility” found in schools. By observing how schools manage micro-decisions of inclusion, HE can stop waiting for students to fail before intervening. 

We must build proactive and high-clarity structures from day one. Outreach should not just be about showing students a lecture hall; it should be an opportunity for HE to study successful inclusion strategies already working in classrooms and translate them into the university setting.

Speaker bio

​Caroline is an award-winning Teacher, AI & Edtech Researcher, and Data Scientist. Having recently completed her PhD at The University of Lancashire, she focuses on crafting a unique Neurodivergent Edu/Tech narrative.

Join us on Bluesky for #LTHEchat on Wednesday 20th May at 8pm BST with guests Puiyin Wong (@puiyin.bsky.social) and John Brindle (@johnbrindletel.bsky.social) to discuss how curiosity-driven conversations can spark meaningful professional growth and evolve into vibrant, supportive communities.

Introduction

Some of the most meaningful professional learning does not begin with a formal programme. It begins with a question, a conversation, and the curiosity to keep exploring. Sometimes, that shared curiosity is enough to start a community. 

We started #TELresearchers and #HEresearchers out of sheer curiosity and a desire to learn more about research career pathways from academics who supervise on our PhD programme. What has grown from that is a global community series with a wide range of speakers and participants. 

So, how do we pursue our curiosity to develop ourselves? And how can we build community around our interests? 

Getting Informal

Informal learning can be a powerful way to develop yourself and others. While it requires a high degree of self-motivation, it can be strengthened through communities and special interest groups (Macià and García, 2016). Although the definition of informal learning is highly contested (Švigelj and Cruz, 2023), it is widely recognised as a core part of continuous professional development across a range of disciplines. In our view, creating space and time for this type of learning is key to a successful and fulfilling career in learning, teaching, and research. 

Curiosity drives this self-directed approach to learning. So how do we build on that curiosity and develop it into a community-focused informal learning opportunity? 

Network

A strong informal learning approach depends on networks, particularly personal learning networks. At the heart of this are four behaviours of learning in an informal network: Consuming, Creating, Connecting, and Contributing (Milligan et al., 2014). In setting the scene for this week’s #LTHEchat, we want to explore these four behaviours in relation to our own practice in informal learning networks.  

Consuming

Creating space for those who want to listen and learn is important in informal learning opportunities. For some, this is their preferred way of “discovering new knowledge and ideas”. We allow participants to ‘lurk’ and listen to the discussion, or to contribute actively if they wish.  

Creating

Creation should be encouraged, and participants should be ‘making knowledge structures public’. By providing opportunities to share sense-making and personal accounts of their journeys, the #TELresearchers and #HEresearchers communities enable speakers to make their knowledge structures public and add ‘a layer of value from which others can benefit’.  

Connecting

As hosts of the community, we have seen our personal learning network grow significantly. Many peers want to talk about research and scholarship beyond our initial PhD cohort, and we have seen this most clearly when speakers and participants are encouraged to share their experiences.  

Contributing

Contribution happens openly. Curated questions, speaker engagement, and open-floor Q&A sessions all help those who want to contribute to the knowledge-creation process. 

How do you see yourself in Milligan et al.’s (2014) four C’s of learning behaviour? 

Openness

Open practice, for us, is a non-negotiable part of informal learning and grassroots CPD development. All of our talks are open: some are shared through the National Teaching Repository, and all are available through YouTube. Invitations are open to anyone who is curious and interested in the shared practice of #TELresearch and #HEresearch, and in the journeys that prominent researchers and scholars have taken. For us, that is the real value of open and informal learning networks. They show that grassroots CPD can start with a small question, grow through shared curiosity, and become a space where people connect, contribute, and keep learning together. 

References 

Macià, M., & García, I. (2016). Informal online communities and networks as a source of teacher professional development: A review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 55, pp. 291-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.01.021. 

Milligan, C., Littlejohn, A. and Margaryan, A. (2014) Workplace learning in informal networks. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, pp. 1–10. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.2014-06 

Švigelj, M., & Cruz, C. (2023). Youth as educators. International Encyclopaedia of Education, 4^th Edition, 337-345. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.08049-0 

Speaker Bios

Puiyin Wong

Puiyin is Senior Advisor (Digital Pedagogy & Practice) at Buckinghamshire New University, where she leads the strategic direction of digital education and contributes to improving teaching quality University wide. She is also a Trustee of Association for Learning Technology (ALT), where she helps govern the strategic development of ALT and supports sector initiatives. Puiyin has a keen interest in bringing people together; she is connected to colleagues in the UK and internationally. Puiyin is at the final stages of her PhD at Lancaster University, exploring the interplay between pedagogy and technology for learning and professional development. Finally, Puiyin leads a multi award winning researchers community – #TELresearchers & #Heresearchers that connects educational researchers at different career stages, from around the world.  

John Brindle

John is Learning Design Manager at Edge Hill University where he leads the design and development of online and blended programmes and non-credit bearing CPD. He is also and advisory panel member for BETT. John has an interest in inclusive practices and curriculum approaches. He is currently finishing his thesis for his PhD at Lancaster University where he is exploring sense-making of inclusive practice by third-space professionals. He co-hosts the award winning #TELresearchers and #HEresearchers community with Puiyin Wong.    

Questions

Q1. What questions or interests first sparked your curiosity in learning, teaching, or research?  

Q2. How has informal learning shaped your professional development compared with more formal CPD opportunities?  

Q3. What role has your personal learning network played in helping you learn, reflect, or grow?  

Q4. Which of the four C’s — Consuming, Creating, Connecting, or Contributing — feels most natural to you, and which would you like to develop further?

Q5. What helps you feel able to move from listening quietly to actively contributing in a learning community?  

Q6. How can open practices help turn individual curiosity into shared learning and community?