Abstract

This study was inspired by the author's participation in a National Research Foundation (NRF) project involving eight South African universities, investigating the enabling and constraining conditions with regard to the professional development of academics in their role as teachers in higher education. Deviating from the NRF project which focused on academics, this study deconstructs the narratives of academic development practitioners on the cultural, structural and agential conditions which enable and/or constrain their own professional development, growth and roles as educational staff development facilitators at a South African University. Designed within the qualitative research approach, a case study design was used. Ten educational developers constituted the sample for the study. Individual interviews were held with the educational developers using a semi-structured interview schedule. Using the Archerian social realist theoretical framework qualitative data was analysed by first transcribing interview tapes and coding the transcribed data. Content analysis was then used to analyse data thematically. The study found that lack of laid down appointment criteria and huge workloads were the major constraining conditions; senior management support and seasoned expertise in the Centre were major enablers for the growth and development of educational developers. Based on the findings, the study concludes that educational developers are overworked and have loosely defined roles and recommends the crafting of a code of conduct for educational development and the development of an academy for educational developers.

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