What makes an education developer? An exploration of academic and professional trajectories, Silvia Colaiacomo

The workshop aims to explore the identity trajectory of educational developers at a pivotal time when on the one hand the role is 'becoming more professionalised, with dedicated study paths and development routes, but on the other it still broadly defined mostly depending on institutional cultures and areas of expertise. The session will be exploratory and will unpick some of the key elements that contribute to making an educational developer by engaging participants in discussions and reflective activities.

1. What makes an education developer? An
exploration of academic and professional
trajectories

Silvia Colaiacomo, Associate Professor in HE Learning & Teaching

Stuart Sims, Head of Academic & Learning Enhancement
University of Greenwich

#6

2. CE
Instructions

Goto
www.menti.com

Enter the code

8195144

Or use QR code

3. How would you define your current
role?

49 responses

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4. Which of the following labels best
describes your academic background?

OR

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5. Research summary

Pilot study: Aim to understand the nature of contemporary educational development work

Collected job descriptions from jobs.ac.uk, Guardian Jobs and Times Higher Jobs between January-February
2024

Search terms: academic develop*; educational develop*; higher education; academic enhance’; Learning;
Learning & Teaching; Learning develop*

14 eligible job descriptions

Reviewed based on...

Title, Salary, Position, Core duties, Research and mapping to SEDA values

6. Preliminary research findings- summary

Little uniformity in job titles

Diverse institutional position

Varied grades/salaries

Often conflates ‘educational development and ‘learning development"
Unclear or non-existent progression routes

LA]

7. Who sets the agenda in your role/unit/institution around educational

development?

Dean of Academic
Innovation

PVC Student
EngagementDean of
TLA

Who knows anymore

Academic Development
Department

LITERALLY NO IDEA The program lead
Educational leadership, not UPVC Education
us. Usually on the back ofa maybe?

cigarette packl am

guessing

» ©

8. Who sets the agenda in your role/unit/institution around educational

development?

Vice dean of education In College - me, wider Conflict between PVC
Uni, DVC ED and the learning
academy
Deputy Vice Chancellor As director | set some of PVC and Directorate of
for Education. this. But some of this is Students and Education
institutional Dean

The program lead

Complex - sometimes me,
sometimes set by
institutional bodies or
designated colleagues

» ©

9. Who sets the agenda in your role/unit/institution around educational

development?

In theory PVC Academic
but is changing soon

PVC Education &
associated committees,
Schools in consultancy
work, Learning and
Teaching Managers,
Elements ofus/me

By others usually
ignoring evidence we
provide

PVCs staffing and
education

Negotiated between
institution and unit

Complex and whoever
shouts loudest

Academic & Digital
Development - based
on L&T strategy

Stable management
and clear direction

» ©

10. Who sets the agenda in your role/unit/institution around educational
development?

Buy in from academic RESILIENCE
departments

» ©

11. What do you consider essential to carry out your role successfully?

Empathy Trust Resilience Expertise
Having impact Financial security (both Senior sponsorship Buy-in from academics
personal and as a team) (support and monetary)

»O

12. What do you consider essential to carry out your role successfully?

Adaptability Good communication Clarity and mutual Freedom to lead
agreement as to the
role itself
‘Admin support - though we Academic buy-in Time and support Swiss Army knife
have none - anda training approach

budget - also non-existent

»O

13. What do you consider essential to carry out your role successfully?

Being a "bridge"

Colleague support

loose reins

Management support,
extensive knowledge of the
differences in each
Faculty/School's approach,
admin support

Opportunity

Running room to make
change happen (not
driven by crisis)

Knowledge of students

Trust

»O

14. What do you consider essential to carry out your role successfully?

Trusting us as experts. Some level of Support and
And to be allowed to autonomy sponsorship from
deepen the expertise senior staff

»O

15. A proposed framework for
requirements, standards and
progression

16. Some considerations

Educational developer roles are context dependent (Land, 2001)
Disconnect between research, policy and practice (Locke, 2009)

Acase for an evidence-based approach? (Newton, De Silva, Berry, 2020)
Developing individuals or curricula? (Ashwin, 2022)

What evidence counts for measuring impact? (Wrigley, 2018)

17. Proposed framework dimensions

1. Context sensitivity

2. Influencing rather than just implementing policy

3. Focussing on projects/interventions that bring together an understanding of research and
practice

4. Evidenced through qualitative and quantitative data

5. Focussing on sustained outcomes

LA]

18. How does dimension X need developing to be linked to prac

Dim 3: rationale

Dim5: taking evidence of
impact into making the
change stick and
embedded

1: both sensitivity and
empowerment

Support with
recognition for others’
academic pratice?

Dim 3: much better
ways of working around
scholarship

1 be clear about what
context means we all
interpreted differently

e?

Nos of PGCertAre we
evidencing right thing?
Hard to assess impact on
learners - a step away from
the student experience

1: acknowledging potential
imposter syndrome &
issues of credibility caused
by mismatch of discipline
between ED and staff

”o

»o

19. How does dimension X need developing to be linked to prac

How do we know the extent
of the ED impact? What
part of student
success/engagement can
we claim?

Dims: flexibility in being
able to change due to the
external and internal
factors

e?
5: sustained and 2. It's easier to measure
sustainable - different! danse touts

2 measure influence. Work is
But both important. Faena

implementation as it meets
metrics , sadly.

”o

»o

20. Would you like to be contacted to
carry on the conversation?

2

LA

21. Happy to be contacted :)

22. References

Ashwin, P. (2022). Understanding educational
development in terms of the collective creation of socially-
just curricula. Teaching in Higher Education, 27(8), 979-
991. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2022.2111208

Land, R. (2001). Agency, context and change in academic
development,

International Journal for Academic Development, 6:1, 4-
20, DOI: 10.1080/13601440110033715

Locke, W. (2009) Reconnecting the Research-Policy-
Practice Nexus in Higher Education: ‘Evidence-Based
Policy’ in practice in National and International Contexts.

Newton PM, Da Silva A and Berry S
(2020) The Case for Pragmatic
Evidence-Based Higher Education: A
Useful Way Forward?

Front. Educ. 5:583157.

doi: 10.3389/feduc.2020.583157

Wrigley, T. (2018) For the many: A curriculum for social
justice. FORUM, 60(2), pp. 179-196.