Capturing the shifting work of teaching in higher education through postcards of practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Amongst the rapid and continual changes occurring in higher education is a heightened emphasis on teaching and the emergence of a quality teaching discourse. In tandem, we are living through a time where not only circumstances, but also new, more complex technologies continue to disrupt and challenge the ways teaching occurs. Despite various initiatives and compliance mechanisms, trust in notions of quality, accountability and scholarship related to teaching in higher education has been questioned. Tensions emerge between the consistency required by institutions and the creativity academics may want to employ in their teaching. Similarly, opportunities for academics to interrogate, discuss and reflect on their teaching can be problematic. In this article, we examine the perspectives of those working amidst these challenges to explore how learning and teaching approaches are changing in the current higher education climate. We draw on data from academic staff working in a faculty of education who shared their understandings through both text and visual responses about their prior, current and imagined future approaches to learning and teaching. We show how academics affectively and reflexively respond to uncertainty and disruption in ways that contribute to understanding and adapting to the challenges of our increasingly digital world.