Oct
2013
ISSOTL13 Workshop Weaving SoTL into Institutional Cultures: Two Models for Supporting Institutional and Cultural Change Roselynn Verwoord (University of British Columbia) and Gary Poole (University of British Columbia) presenting and Andrea Williams (University of Toronto), Theresa Beery (University of Cincinnati), Karen Strickland (Napier University), James McKinnon (Victoria University of Wellington), Jessica Pace (McMaster University), Helen Dalton (University of New South Wales) all part of the writing group for this paper.
An article has been published about this in teaching and learning inquiry following the interdisciplinary writing group working together last year.
The vision of the group was that “inquiry, evidence and innovation in teaching and learning are part of the fabric of everyday life” (Williams et al 2013:50). Evidence based approaches to supporting student learning are essential and the institutional culture is an important element that influences participants likelihood of engaging with SOTL (Haigh, Gossman & Jico 2011). The group considered the term weaving as important in order to bring together multiple threads of institutional culture.
In the workshop they asked groups to discuss is there an institutional culture around SOTL?, why shouldn’t teaching and learning be seen as a clear research priority?, and are there champions in the schools?.
Following our discussion which was wide ranging and generally showed that most felt there were strands of SOTL rather than a culture the presenters provided an overview of the model they had developed within the writing group. This model was informed by social networking theory (Schesis 1990) which requires networks to be built and communities of practice which are groups of people sharing a passion and interacting regularly to learn to do things better.
Primarily at the macro level are VC’s/ PVC’s of education etc who set the direction, at the Meso level are those who interpret key issues and act such as PVC’s/Directors of teaching and learning and some Deans, those at the Micro level are people from communities of practice and individuals. Some individuals are leaders who share ideas and values.
Students have not been included in this model and some in the group felt this was an omission. In the discussion of applying the model may felt there was some value but some also asked about other models such as McKay’s cultural model. There was a good discussion though of how to engage more ISSOTL in institutions.
The views ended with mention of the need for more use of literature reviews to support work such as with research and the need for a clear definition of inquiry in SOTL.