Growing transnational partnership educational provision via a Learning Development strategy: possibilities and pitfalls

Abstract

Educational provision within transnational partnerships arrangements has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. This lightning talk focused on the creation of a Professional Development Series (PDS) initiative in the transnational educational partnership work at London Metropolitan University designed to strengthen cooperative, dialogic practice and to embed a strong communities of practice approach (Wenger, 1998) within partnership work. The PDS programme ran in the autumn of 2023 with hourly sessions roughly twice a month. It sought to bring together partnership educators from all backgrounds (including frontline teaching educators, library staff educators and educators in quality and governance) and included education-focused sessions (‘Evaluating the quality of learning and teaching’ and ‘Supporting learners who are struggling with their studies’), research-focused sessions (‘Understanding research ethics’ and ‘Exploring quantitative research’), graduation-focused sessions (‘Embedding employability in HE curricula’), and a session dedicated to partnership work (‘Working successfully in partnerships’). Conroy’s lightning talk outlined the starting points and principles underlying the PDS before discussing how to design and run Learning Development initiatives in transnational education, including points around initial reconnaissance work, pragmatics, tone, and how to foster dialogue and interaction within session spaces. Attention then turned to evaluating what may amplify or diminish the success and impact of such programmes and finally raised discussion points intended to spur debate among conference delegates around the boundaries, parameters, and desirable points of emphasis for Learning Development initiatives in transnational educational provision.