Creating environments which nurture development: Messages from research into academics’ experiences

Abstract

In this discussion I map a process through which academic developers might become players rather than pawns in their work within changing universities. In doing so, I draw on recent research into the way academics respond to the pressures on them to adopt more flexible teaching practices, including the use of information and communication technologies in those practices (Taylor, Lopez & Quadrelli, 1996). Four themes are reflected in the findings of that research: tribalism; community; the need for refuges (for safety); and the value of guiding principles to the development of new practices. I explain the origin and meaning of these themes, and explore the relationships between them and their implications. My argument is for the development of communities in which university staff can innovate in contexts which provide constructive, as distinct from judgemental, feedback and support. That is, communities which are sources of both safety and challenge. Before moving to discuss those four themes I locate the discussion within a set of ideas concerning the relationship between educational reform and professional development.