James Dunphy, Director of Educational Excellence and Professor Will Foster, Senior Consultant Leadership, Development and Research, introduce our new teaching and learning careers report.
This report builds upon important research published a decade ago that showed universities what they needed to do to strengthen teaching and learning career paths.
Presenting desk research, interviews and investigations across four international contexts, ‘Embedding reward, recognition and promotion in teaching and learning: perspectives from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland’ reveals that many things have changed for the better in teaching and learning careers in the last 10 years. One great example of this is Fellowship – over 200,000 Fellowships have been awarded globally, securing recognition for the quality and impact of teaching and learning practice.
While there has clearly been progress, it’s evident that there remain areas for future development as we look to design the higher education of the future.
Remaining challenges
This report draws out the perspectives of those working in our institutions, and rightly challenges leaders, agencies and practitioners to continue to work together to get both the support for, and recognition of, great teaching and learning.
Collaborating with Associate Professors Gwen Moore and Deanne Gannaway was both rewarding and challenging. Our teamwork led to valuable insights and deepened our understanding, while also resonating with the experiences of others in the field.
Higher education systems across regions significantly shape how teaching careers can advance or stagnate. While regional contexts vary widely, educators seeking recognition and advancement in teaching face remarkably similar challenges. Despite the diversity of institutions and absence of a universal solution, this report identifies common principles and strategies that can guide progress.
How this report can support institutions
This research aims to guide institutions and policymakers in developing strategic approaches to teaching-focused academic careers, including recognition and promotion pathways. Through our webinars and roundtable discussions, participants across various roles emphasized the importance of this work. They particularly highlighted the need for institutions to better hear and respond to teaching-focused academics, whose perspectives are often overlooked.
As we work to design the higher education sector of the future we should listen to these voices. In this sense the report is timely – it recognises the journey to date but also flags to us the elements of teaching and learning careers that will be important to get right if we are to secure the outcomes we want for students, our colleagues and higher education more generally.
