SoTL and National Difference

Abstract

What role does/should national difference play in our understanding of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) as a concept and a practice? Three historians from Australia, the UK and the USA muse on this important issue. Informed by their engagement with the literature and the field, they argue that national difference is an observable phenomenon within SoTL but that each national response has been shaped by the broader transnational/international engagements of recent years.

Nested Within or Swallowed Up: Le dilemme des chercheurs francophones en pédagogie postsecondaire au Canada

“…Hoon et Looker (2013) notent, par exemple, que la littérature SoTL témoigne du fait que SoTL « is shadowed by persistent questions of definition, the role of theory, and the place of disciplinary epistemologies in shaping enquiry » (p. 4). Cette définition est d'autant plus difficile à cerner en contexte francophone, puisque, comme le témoignent Brawley et al (2009), « SoTL is an American phenomenon which has not spread far beyond the English-speaking world » (p. 9).…”

“…Cette optique d'analyse basée sur les réflexions personnelles s'aligne avec l'approche préconisée par d'autres chercheurs qui se sont également interrogés sur la vitalité de la RePP dans leurs communautés respectives, en particulier Brawley et al (2009) :…”

Design history: from service subject to discrete discipline

“…Brawley, Kelly and Timmins (2009) have demonstrated the importance of comparative appraisals of pedagogic trends to identify the marked international differences in pedagogical theory and practice. What follows is an initial attempt to broadly map design history's current position in teaching and research based on primary email interviews and published research, for an international sample of regions.…”

Exploring the Feasibility of International Collaboration and Relationship Building through a Virtual Partnership Scheme

“…SoTL is gaining acceptance and further recognition in many institutions across the globe; however, it is not universally understood and valued. As Brawley et al (2009) point out, when the ISSoTL was founded in 2004, SoTL was a predominantly US concept. According to McKinney (2006) cross-national differences in the meaning of SoTL may exist.…”

“…SoTL has been described as both a process and the outputs of that process, as a concept, a movement, a cult (Brawley, Mills, Kelly, & Timmins, 2009) and a "paradigmatic change in higher education" (Atkinson, 2001(Atkinson, , p. 1218. SoTL is gaining acceptance and further recognition in many institutions across the globe; however, it is not universally understood and valued.…”