Led by guests from the network: Prof Emmajane Milton @EmmajaneMilton1, Prof Hannah Cobb @ArchaeoCobb, Earle Abrahamson @earleabrahamso2, Prof Julie Hulme @JulieH_Psyc & Heather Pennington @PenningtonPGCE

Are you in a learning and teaching focused role? Do you have an unconventional background, perhaps coming from industry or professional practice? Maybe you are an educational or academic developer or maybe you just feel like a lone voice in a seemingly research-dominated context?   

Have you ever felt like you are different from colleagues in your institution and wondered, ‘Am I supposed to be here? Do I fit?’. We have too!  

At Advance HE’s 2022 and 2023 EDI conferences we ran sessions to explore this. These examined how learning and teaching focused colleagues, who can feel like they are different and are often in the minority, actually bring richness to the academy and the institutions they work for. They can often feel misunderstood and are typically underrepresented in senior roles within UK HE. We are not alone in these observations; Smith and Walker (2021, 2022), for example, have highlighted how a confused sectoral understanding of scholarship can work to exclude teaching focused colleagues from overarching (research-driven) institutional narratives and pathways to reward and recognition. Others have highlighted broader trends in issues around promotion that arise from the diversity of learning and teaching focused colleagues (Bennett et al. 2018).

For us, what started as a few learning and teaching focused individuals expressing feelings of ‘not fitting’ has snowballed into a national conversation, and from this, we have established a Learning and Teaching Focused Network.

For LTHEchat #271, members of the network invite you to join us to celebrate the diversity of learning and teaching focused colleagues, but also to explore the challenges and misconceptions and to examine positive strategies for addressing these and bringing about change in the sector.

A National Network

Beyond the chat, we invite you to join us in our network which aims to develop inclusive ways of working to help learning and teaching focused colleagues flourish.  

The network aims to have:  

• Reach – we are inclusive of all colleagues in learning and teaching focused roles, whilst not excluding any colleagues who are interested in engaging with the network’s work.  
• Value – we will raise the visibility of the diversity* of colleagues in learning and teaching focused roles, valuing the expertise they bring to HE and the breadth in nature of their roles.  
• Impact – we will enable the diversity of colleagues in learning and teaching focused roles to be recognised, feel valued, have a sense of belonging, voice and agency to flourish in HE.  

(*Diversity in this context means background, professional roles and expertise, career path, career levels and status as well as protected characteristics from the Equality Act.)  

The network also works to enable colleagues to share good practices, helpful tips, and information about promotion, publications, webinars, conferences, and more. Providing a space to:   

• highlight perspectives, experiences, and understandings related to learning and teaching focused roles,  
• identify successes and barriers for learning and teaching focused colleagues and,
• help inform the development of these roles across our sector.  

At the moment the network exists as an email discussion list which you can join here, and through a variety of online events. Our next event is entitled “Developing Scholarship in your context” and will take place online on Friday 17^th November 10.30-12.30 GMT. You can sign up to this free event here. 

References

Bennett, D., Roberts, L., Ananthram, S. et al. (2018) What is required to develop career pathways for teaching academics?. Higher Education 75, 271–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0138-9

Smith, S. & Walker, D. (2021) Scholarship and academic capitals: the boundaried nature of education-focused career tracks, Teaching in Higher Education, 1-15, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2021.1965570

Susan Smith & David Walker (2022) Scholarship and teaching focused roles: An exploratory study of academics’ experiences and perceptions of support, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 1-12, DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2022.2132981

Guest biographies

Who is in the National Network?

The National Network is a growing network of colleagues – check out bios of the members (and if you join the network feel free to add your own bio!).

The network arose from conversations amongst colleagues from eight UK HEIs (Birmingham City University, Cardiff University, Leeds University, University of Manchester, Nottingham Trent University, University of East Anglia, University of Hertfordshire, and the University of Kent) and has since then grown to include a much wider group of UK HEIs.

The main people from the network who will contribute to LTHEChat #271 are: Emmajane Milton, Hannah Cobb, Earle Abrahamson, Julie Hulme, and Heather Pennington.