Aspiring academics: a resource book for graduate students and early career faculty

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal for Academic Development on 05/09/2008, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/13601440802242655Book Revie

Reviewing the literature on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL): An academic literacies perspective: Part 2

There are few sources that critically evaluate the different ways of reviewing the literature on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). We use an academic literacies perspective as a lens with which to explore the different ways that literature reviews may be undertaken. While reviewing the literature is often presented as a scientific, objective process; the reality is much messier, nuanced, and iterative. It is a complex, context-dependent procedure. We provide a practical, critical guide to undertaking SoTL literature reviews. By adopting an academic literacies perspective, we argue that undertaking a synthesis of the literature is a socially constructed process. There is no one way of reviewing the SoTL literature. We distinguish between embedded reviews that present a review contextualising the research that follows, as in most SoTL research articles; and freestanding reviews that synthesize research on specific topics. We discuss the nature of embedded reviews, and evaluate systematic and narrative review approaches to undertaking freestanding reviews. We contend that some of the claims of the superiority of systematic reviews are unjustified. Though critical of systematic reviews, we recognise that for the most part narrative and systematic reviews have different purposes, and both are needed to review the SoTL literature. We suggest that narrative reviews are likely to continue to dominate the SoTL literature, especially while most SoTL studies use qualitative or mixed methods. It is important that contextually-sensitive judgements and interpretation of texts, associated with narrative reviews, are seen as central to the reviewing process, and as a strength rather than a weakness. This article complements a separate one, where we apply an academic literacies lens to reviewing the literature on searching the SoTL literature (Healey and Healey 2023). Together they present a narrative review of searching and reviewing the SoTL literature undertaken systematically. We conclude the current article by discussing the implications for the further development of an academic literacies perspective to searching and reviewing the SoTL literature. We call for studies investigating the lived experiences of SoTL scholars as they go about searching and reviewing the literature. We illustrate this argument with an auto-ethnographic account of the often-serendipitous nature of our hunt for sources in preparing this review and the way our thinking and writing evolved during the writing of the two articles

Searching the Literature on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): An Academic Literacies Perspective: Part 1

There are few references that critically evaluate the different ways of searching the literature on scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), or how these are related to researchers’ goals. We use an academic literacies perspective as a lens with which to explore the different ways that literature searches may be undertaken. While searching the literature is often presented as a scientific objective process, the reality is much messier, nuanced, and iterative. It is a complex, context-dependent process. We provide a practical, critical guide to undertaking SoTL literature searches and argue that these need to be seen as socially constructed processes. There is no one right way of searching the SoTL literature. The academic literacies perspective leads us to emphasise the variety of different purposes for carrying out a literature search. We distinguish between using comprehensive tools and selective sources. We end by arguing that there is a need for SoTL researchers to be less insular and take purposeful steps to search for, cite, and amplify diverse voices. This article complements a separate one where we review and synthesise the SoTL literature

Book reviews: Janet McLellan, CAMBODIAN REFUGEES IN ONTARIO: RESETTLEMENT, RELIGION AND IDENTITY, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009, xiii + 263 pp., CDN$55.00 (hb)

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Ethnic and Racial Studies on 13th October 2010, available online: doi: 10.1080/01419870.2010.517016Book Revie

How engaged are undergraduate students in ethics and ethical thinking? An analysis of the ethical development of undergraduates by discipline

This is the published version of an article published in Student Engagement and Experience Journal, 2014, 3(2

Gender Variation in Asylum Experiences in the UK: The Role of Patriarchy and Coping Strategies

Previous work suggests that female asylum seekers and refugees have more constraints on their actions than their male counterparts, as structural forces from the country of origin are reproduced in the host country. This paper explores the use of structuration theory in interpreting the impact of gender upon asylum seeker and refugee experiences in the UK. The experiences of, and coping strategies used by 8 male and 10 female asylum seekers and refugees from two different cities are analysed. Their experiences are examined in relation to different patriarchal forces. In comparison to the males, differences are apparent in the level and types of agency of the female asylum seekers and refugees. Within this study certain types of patriarchy are reproduced in British society particularly at the household level, whilst individuals are also influenced by institutional patriarchy within the wider society. The variation in experiences found here suggests the need for policy to recognise the heterogeneity of these groups, so as to provide the most appropriate support for individuals

Ethical thinking in a disciplinary context: The ethical development of undergraduates and expectations of tutors in the arts, social and pure sciences

Unpublished conference presentation given at the Society for Research into Higher Education conference 2013 at Celtic Manor, Newport, 11 December 2013.Barnett (2000: 257) argues that universities need to prepare students for ‘supercomplexity’, where “the very frameworks by which we orientate ourselves to the world are themselves contested”. Learning to think through ethical issues develops critical thinking skills for dealing with supercomplexity, since the frameworks students use to consider ethical issues are contested and likely to change. This research explores disciplinary variations in the development of undergraduates’ ethical thinking during their programmes and compares how this aligns with the expectations of their tutors. Interviews were conducted with tutors teaching on the English, Geography and Animal Behaviour and Welfare programmes at an English University and a questionnaire was completed by 335 students studying on these programmes. It was found that across the disciplines tutors have similar expectations in terms of the nature of ethical thinking desired but that most of the students exhibit lower levels of ethical development than their tutors expected

The benefits of hindsight: Lessons learnt from leading my first cross-department student-staff partnership project

Student-staff partnerships have been shown to offer significant potential for enhancing learning and teaching in higher education, however, they are not without their challenges. This paper reflects on my experience of leading a team in our first cross-department student-staff partnership project, which focused on the curriculum design, identifying five key lessons that were learnt from the experience. Despite the challenges faced in this project this did not lessen the success of the project in terms of the production of four successful modules, and the act of undertaking the project and introducing colleagues to partnership practice has enhanced the capacity for partnership across the department

Engaging in radical work: Students as partners in academic publishing

Students as partners is the radical antithesis of the consumerist mind-set in higher education. Yet students have traditionally been absent from one key arena of academia: publishing. The International Journal for Students as Partners seeks to address this absence through pairing academic and student co-editors for all its sections

Hacking through the Gordian Knot: can facilitating operational mentoring untangle the gender research productivity puzzle in higher education?

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Studies in Higher Education on 30/05/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2017.1333494In spite of a number of drivers for change in the pursuit of gender equality in higher education in the UK and beyond, the gender gap in research activity is still widely recognised across most subject disciplines. Over recent years, mentoring strategies have often been seen as the Alexandrian sword capable of cutting the gender deficit ‘Gordian Knot’. However, analysis of current practice and dialogue points to a lack of a consistent approach in addressing and implementing HE policy in this area with many initiatives providing standardised non-evidence-based provision aimed at addressing an alleged confidence deficit and exhausting an already fatigued group of successful senior women. This paper seeks to triangulate existing literature with an analysis of data collected from a funded UK-based research project ultimately proposing a five-step institutional mentoring approach aimed at providing some inroads into alleviating the gender deficit in research productivity in the academy