On the necessity of hope in academic development

McGowan, Susannah; Felten, Peter

doi:10.1080/1360144x.2021.1903902

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…We might also say that "education only begins" when the educator or the institution is similarly "willing to take a risk." Such risk-taking has to be inseparable from hope, of course (McGowan & Felten, 2021). Hope and risk are at the heart of a wicked problems mindset.…”

Section: Hope and Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coda: A wicked problems mindset for educational development

Bass

2022

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

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The essay reflects on the condition of higher education as a wicked problem and the implications of that framing for the work of educational developers. In order to adopt a wicked problems mindset, educational developers should adopt three stances: the wide view, building increasingly diverse coalitions, amplifying increasingly diverse voices, and taking in the widest range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives; the long view, asking how work we do in the next couple of years might shape the next ten (and more); the critical view, finding ways to support and advance the known best practices, while also being a source of professional and institutional self-reflection and creative disruption, continuously questioning where and how learning takes place, as well as the helpful and harmful ways that higher education institutions embody the aims of education.

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Section: Hope and Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coda: A wicked problems mindset for educational development

Bass

2022

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

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“…Other times, we pause on this journey to revel in what is and to reflect on how far we have come. And yet, at other times, we envision what could be and plough boldly forward, guided by hope (McGowan & Felten, 2021), exploring new horizons that beckon us as we embrace, as Sutherland ( 2018) has suggested, 'the whole of the academic role', the 'whole of the institution', and the 'whole person ' (pp. 261-262).Along the way, a key aspect of academic developers' success has been our valuing of supportive and facilitative approaches, working side-by-side with academic colleagues to build collaborative, community-orientated teaching and research cultures in which we embed our academic development work (Shagrir, 2017).…”

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Creating a collaborative community spirit for the future of academic development

Sheffield

Timmermans

2021

International Journal for Academic Development

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We invite you to imagine a landscape with hills and meandering pathways. As you look from your gentle mind's eye, you see not a static landscape, but one that is in movement, that has an energy, a flow, a momentum. As your eyes travel across this landscape you see single paths that interweave with others, where 'there' and 'here' intersect. As academic developers, over the past half century, we have helped to forge many pathways across this rugged landscape of higher education and have brought many academic colleagues along with us through our on-going commitment to deep, caring, and immersive work (Bolander Laksov & Huijser, 2020;Gibbs, 2013;Knapper, 2003). At times, we go back across this already-traversed terrain to meet people where they are, working to ensure the sustainability of our work. Other times, we pause on this journey to revel in what is and to reflect on how far we have come. And yet, at other times, we envision what could be and plough boldly forward, guided by hope (McGowan & Felten, 2021), exploring new horizons that beckon us as we embrace, as Sutherland ( 2018) has suggested, 'the whole of the academic role', the 'whole of the institution', and the 'whole person ' (pp. 261-262).Along the way, a key aspect of academic developers' success has been our valuing of supportive and facilitative approaches, working side-by-side with academic colleagues to build collaborative, community-orientated teaching and research cultures in which we embed our academic development work (Shagrir, 2017). At the same time, we have been increasingly asked to fill leadership roles, both within these communities and in our larger institutions. Are we, as Shelda Debowski (2014) asks, 'agents of change' or 'partners in arms'? We are challenged to stay 'part of' the collegial communities we are invited into and create, meeting faculty where they are at, partnering with them, and celebrating good work, while at the same time, we are increasingly tasked with achieving institutional directives or goals that may not completely align with the collaborative communities of which we consider ourselves to be a part (Sugrue et al., 2018). These challenges remind us of the complexity and intricacy of navigating the interconnected paths of identity, belongingness, and cultural membership inherent in each academic development initiative.Considered collectively, the articles in this issue capture these tensions in our academic development work and compel us to consider the positionalities we might, or must, take up as we move forward. Two articles draw our attention to an enduring need to nurture opportunities for individual teaching and learning development, despite previous and ongoing work in these areas (Gilmore, 2021; Sabourin, 2021). Yet other articles focus on a need for academic developers to build community groups to advance more process-oriented academic development initiatives (Kim et al., 2021; Turner et al., 2021). Finally, two articles beckon us to grow our academic developer identities and roles as cultural change agen...

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Finding Hope and Looking Ahead to Fall 2021

Bessette¹

2021

Natl Teach & Learn Forum

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On the necessity of hope in academic development

Cited by 8 publications

References 13 publications

Coda: A wicked problems mindset for educational development

Coda: A wicked problems mindset for educational development

Creating a collaborative community spirit for the future of academic development

Finding Hope and Looking Ahead to Fall 2021

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