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.

SoTL 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)