Toward a New Creative Scholarship of Educational Development: The Teaching and Learning Project and an Opening to Discourse

What Teaching Looks Like: Higher Education through Photographs

“…Based on the Caltech visit in early 2013, Martin and I wondered what would happen if we began to bring photographs into consultations and discussions about teaching in new ways, which led to the development of a consultation process, protocol, and formal research study (Springborg and Horii 2016). In the years since, we have continued to develop and explore the role of photographs in campus change processes together, at Caltech and at other institutions.…”

“…Anna Hunter's explorations of "snapshots of selfhood" explored the "use of photography as a medium through which to present, represent, and interpret" academic work and professional identity, in her case through visual autoethnography using a small number of images from and about her work life (Hunter 2020, 310). With a much wider and more diverse set of photographs in terms of subjects and settings, this volume will often invite you into the process of "exploring lived experience through photographs," using them as "reflexive prompts" (Hunter 313,314) to spark insight and discovery-a process which our work has explored through discussions with educators whose classes were photographed in The Teaching and Learning Project since 2013, resulting in a study documenting the kinds of incidents of reflection prompted by thinking with photographs, including those about their own self concepts and identities (Springborg and Horii 2016). Importantly, we found that photographs often affirmed or had positive impacts on postsecondary educators by demonstrating, in a very different way than they had previously experienced, their accomplishments as teachers, their values and commitments, and their meaningful interactions with students.…”

“…along with several follow-up questions and topics. This process and the results of the research are documented in our 2016 article (Springborg and Horii 2016). This book's online resources include "Photography-Based Instructional Consultation Prompts," an interview guide that may be used to structure teaching consultations with instructors that incorporate photographs from their classes.…”

“…Following Martin's visit, this team continued to make photographs focusing on active learning in real classrooms. They also adapted the consultation process developed for use with faculty (Springborg and Horii 2016) for conversations among media and academic staff, resulting in "a deeply enriching internal professional development opportunity for our team. In our own unit, we are now more aware of what our work is.…”