Winning an External Teaching Award in Higher Education: Teacher Identity and Recipient Characteristics (original) (raw)

Teacher Identity in Higher Education: A Phenomenological Inquiry

The Batuk, 2019

Teacher identity remains as a major issue of research in the field of teachers’ professional development. Understanding the construction of teacher identity is important to fully understand how teachers negotiate their selves with broader institutional power relations and to discuss how teachers invest their agency in building their professional identity. This phenomenological study analyzes the experiencesof six university lecturers with a focus on teacher identity construction in relation to broader institutional culture. This show study shows that university lecturers, who are at the bottom of professional hierarchy, do not receive much institutional support nor are they mentored by their seniors. More strikingly, the study reveals academic identity of the university lecturers are not recognized due to growing culture of partisan politics. This culture has also created sense of fear and unfriendly collegial relations.

Teaching Effectively: Award Winning Faculty Share Their Views

Journal of Agricultural Education, 2011

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the phenomena of effective teaching for award winning faculty instructors at the University of Missouri. Nine university faculty members were selected to participate in this study based on their recognition as award winning instructors and by nomination from their respective college's academic dean. Each participant took part in a semistructured interview with a member of the research team. After analysis, several themes were identified and fell into two broad categories dealing first with the act of effective teaching and second, the act of becoming and evolving as an effective teacher. One sub-theme was the need to focus on students. While all acknowledged the importance of course content, they noted that if the focus is not on the student, content is of little consequence. Additionally, sub-themes indicated that effective teaching required dialogue, was relevant and led to critical thinking and progression which caused students to think about content in a new way. Further, themes describing teaching as scholarship and teaching and learning being a process of growth emerged. These themes provide valuable insight into how award winning faculty instructors think about their teaching.

An investigation into the dialectic of Academic Teaching Identity: Some preliminary findings

2016

Within UK Higher Education the professionalization of university teaching has become increasingly significant with regards to its perceived role in improving student engagement (Nyamapfene, 2014) as well as aligning with recent government proposals regarding the Teaching Excellence Framework. Yet developing teaching excellence in higher education goes beyond acquiring the technical capacities needed to perform an occupation effectively. It extends to the formation of lecturers’ identities, an area which is somewhat contested in current thinking. Trede, Mackin and Bridges (2011), for example, argue that academic identify develops when there is an alignment with a professional attitudes, while Nevgi and Löfström (2015) found that a teacher identity was a function of a dynamic interaction between reflection on teaching practice and deepening knowledge of theoretical pedagogical constructs. However, there remains little agreement on a framework for understanding the development of this ...

Developing a teacher identity in the university context: a systematic review of the literature

Higher Education Research & Development, 2016

This literature review summarises the growing body of literature discussing teacher identities of university teachers. The aim was to understand what strengthens or constrains the development of a teacher identity. A qualitative synthesis of 59 studies was carried out. The review showed that several factors contribute to the development of teacher identity. While contact with students and staff development programmes were experienced as strengthening teacher identity, the wider context of higher education was experienced as having a constraining effect. Furthermore, the impact of the direct work environment was experienced as either strengthening or constraining, depending on whether or not teaching is valued in the department. Five psychological processes were found to be involved in the development of a teacher identity: a sense of appreciation, a sense of connectedness, a sense of competence, a sense of commitment, and imagining a future career trajectory. The findings suggest that developing a teacher identity in the higher education context is not a smooth process. In order to empower university teachers, it is important to reward teaching excellence and build community. Staff development activities can play a role in helping teachers to develop strategies for gaining confidence and taking active control of their work situation, both individually and collectively. The authors argue that more attention should be paid to the implicit messages that departments convey to their teaching faculty.

Pathways to the Professorate: The Development of Faculty Identity in Education

Innovative Higher Education, 2003

This study describes the development of initial faculty identities of doctoral students in education as they transition and adjust to the professorate. The findings are based on constant comparative analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 participants at 14 universities. Interview data are supplemented by participant journals and materials, including curriculum vitae, website materials, and program documents. I identified five archetypal

Conceptions of excellent teaching: a phenomenographic study of winners of awards for teaching excellence

Higher Education Research & Development, 2020

Academics nowadays are increasingly expected to implement highquality teaching, what is frequently referred to as 'excellent teaching'. Understandings of academics' conceptions of excellent teaching are, however, limited, despite extensive research on different aspects of quality teaching. To address this gap, there is a need to expand the somewhat limited understanding of teaching as being located mainly within a subject matter and address the lack of a holistic appreciation of the interrelationships between teaching and other academic practices. In this study, we investigated conceptions of excellent teaching by adopting a broad view on teaching that covers curriculum design and programme leadership as well as the interaction between teaching, research and service. The research participants were twenty-four winners of awards for teaching excellence in two research-intensive universities in Hong Kong. Four conceptions of excellent teaching were identified: (1) teachers teach confidently and effectively; (2) teachers guide students to achieve the intended learning outcomes; (3) teachers empower students to develop knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values holistically; and (4) teachers work with students to enable them to own their learning and become lifelong learners. The more complex conceptions show more concerns about students' long-term development as well as a stronger connection between student learning, academics' research, and the wider community. A significant contribution of the research is the identification of additional conceptions of teaching excellence, including an expanded focus on students' holistic development and connections between teaching, research, and broader academic roles.