by Jessie L. Moore

Questions about the value of higher education and governmental focus on its costs continue to filter into discussions about colleges and universities. From Our Underachieving Colleges (Derek Bok, 2006) to Academically Adrift (Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, 2011) to news stories around the globe (for example), higher education’s status quo is being called into question.

As Robert J. Thompson, Jr. writes in the introduction to Changing the Conversation about Higher Education, “the current conversation about undergraduate education is dominated by: criticism of the effectiveness of educational practices and the quality of student learning, debates about the validity and utility of assessment approaches, and conflict regarding the locus of responsibility for accountability” (2013, pp. 1-2).

Fortunately, a growing number of scholars are recognizing the potential of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to change campus cultures about student learning. Changing the Conversation, for example, features three-year projects supported by a Teagle Foundation and Spencer Foundation partnership to foster “a culture of experimentation and evidence for undergraduate education” (emphasis original). Thompson describes the project’s focus on research universities as a conscientious decision to change the conversation about undergraduate learning at the institutions that prepare future faculty.

The Center for Engaged Learning’s research seminars promote a similar goal by supporting multi-institutional research on focused engaged learning topics. The Center accepts applications from higher education scholars around the globe who want to investigate, assess, and improve higher education’s support for student learning around high-impact practices.

Collectively, these types of research initiatives illustrate an attempt to shift campus cultures, previewing Lee Shulman’s vision for SoTL as a cultural norm in higher education:

Jessie L. Moore (@jessielmoore) is the Associate Director of the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University and associate professor of Professional Writing & Rhetoric in the Department of English.

by Sherry Lee Linkon

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) can have an effect on multiple levels.  While SoTL can be a source of ideas and part of an individual scholarly agenda, it also has the potential to foster change on larger levels.  One person’s research can inspire a whole department to try new ways of working with students.  One department’s work can serve as a template for colleagues across campus.  A cluster of SoTL scholars in a single field can lead the way to transformation of teaching within a discipline.  And all of that work, on all of those levels, yields insights about teaching and learning that should be part of regional, national, and international discussions about higher education policy.  SoTL scholars can become public intellectuals, and together we can advocate for the importance of faculty and student voices in decision-making about the future of higher education.

If all of that sounds ambitious and challenging, it is.  But we can learn how to be effective advocates by listening to those who have already become leaders and organizers.  At the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) 2013 conference, four scholars from different disciplines, institutions, and countries shared their stories of becoming advocates for teaching and learning.

?t=1s

Their stories suggest several lessons for SoTL scholars who want to use their experience and knowledge as the basis for reaching out to colleagues and making a difference in campus and public policy.

1. Start where people are – including yourself.  This is what Julie Reynolds did by talking with colleagues about their shared frustrations about undergraduate thesis projects.  The key is listening – to people’s stories, their problems, their visions.  If you listen well, you can identify shared issues and values that motivate people.
2. Build connections to link individuals and to create networks.  Making change starts with creating relationships. Klara Bolander Laksov explained how a key step to making change in the medical school where she works was buying a really good coffee machine, which became a place for informal conversations that helped build relationships and share ideas.
3. Share ownership.  In a strong network, effective leaders assure that many participants have opportunities to take responsibility.  In the process, participants become collaborators and embrace the work as their own.  Marian McCarthy illustrated this in her story about how faculty who have been through the SoTL training program at the University of Cork go on to become partners in new projects.
4. Think big and think systematically.  Arshad Ahmad offered a powerful example of this in his comments, describing the work he and his colleagues at the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education  are planning a global summit on higher education, which will include not just faculty and students but also business people, politicians, journalists, artists, and others.

Sherry Lee Linkon is Professor of English and Faculty Director of Writing Curriculum Initiatives at Georgetown University. She is the author of  Literary Learning: Teaching in the English Major (Indiana UP, 2011), New Working-Class Studies (w/ John Russo, Cornell/ILR Press, 2005), Steeltown USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown (w/ John Russo, University of Kansas Press, 2002), and Teaching Working Class (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999).