Strategic Approaches to SoEL Inquiry Within and Across Disciplines: Twenty-year Impact of an International Faculty Development Program in Diverse University Contexts

Andrea S Webb,Harry T Hubball,Anthony Clarke,Simon Ellis

doi:10.22158/grhe.v3n1p1

Andrea S Webb, Harry T Hubball + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.22158/grhe.v3n1p1

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Abstract

Educational leaders on university campuses around the world are increasingly required to account for the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of their undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The S Scholarship of Educational Leadership (SoEL) in higher education is a distinctive form of strategic inquiry for educational leaders with an explicit transformational agenda of educational practices within and across the disciplines in diverse university contexts. This paper examines complex institutional challenges and strategic approaches to SoEL inquiry. In an international faculty development context, data suggests that educational leaders from a variety of disciplines face significant challenges when undertaking SoEL inquiry. Strategic institutional supports and customised professional development are key to facilitating SoEL inquiry in higher education. Further, SoEL is inherently situated, socially mediated, and responsive to the professional learning needs and circumstances of educational leaders within and across the disciplines in diverse university contexts.

Highlights

In a global higher education environment of unprecedented competition, rapid technological change, increasingly diminishing resources, increasing student diversity, and demands for local and internationally-responsive undergraduate and graduate degree programs, the quality of higher education www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/grheGlobal Research in Higher EducationVol 3, No 1, 2020 practices is being scrutinized as never before
The first section explains the evolution of institutionally supported scholarly teaching/scholarship of teaching and learning/educational leadership, while the second section focuses on the delivery of an international faculty development program with strategic impact in diverse institutional contexts. 3.1 Discovering, Envisioning, and Designing the Strategic Impact of Institutional Scholarship of Educational Leadership (SoEL) Inquiry in University of British Columbia (UBC)’s Diverse Research-Intensive University Context Initially, UBC did not have a twenty-year plan to support the development of educational leadership
Institutional level learning outcomes, for example, include local, international, and global objectives: “Through collaboration, at home and abroad, we will help students, faculty and staff broaden their perspectives, learn from peers and colleagues around the globe, and contribute to a shared positive impact” (UBC Strategic Plan, 2018). 3.2.2 Key Supports to Enhance the Impact of Institutional SoEL Inquiry for Educational Leaders in an International Faculty Development Program Data suggest that regional, national and/or professional accreditation agencies in many regions of the world are working more closely than ever with universities to anchor their activities in the needs of institutional priorities to better support and enhance educational practices, leadership and their related scholarship

Summary

Introduction

In a global higher education environment of unprecedented competition, rapid technological change, increasingly diminishing resources, increasing student diversity, and demands for local and internationally-responsive undergraduate and graduate degree programs, the quality of higher education www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/grheGlobal Research in Higher EducationVol 3, No 1, 2020 practices is being scrutinized as never before. The Scholarship of Educational Leadership (SoEL) is a distinctive form of strategic inquiry for educational leaders with an explicit transformational agenda of educational practices within and across the disciplines in diverse higher education contexts (including colleges and Research-Intensive Universities (RIUs)). Educational leaders from a variety of disciplines, especially those unfamiliar to social science research methodologies and methods, do not have the appropriate methodological expertise or strategic support and find it significantly challenging to conduct SoEL research in complex institutional/curricula/classroom settings (D‟Andrea, 2006; Hubball & Clarke, 2010). While a useful guide and starting point for many novice educational leaders with responsibilities for quality assurance and enhancement, these “What Works” tips do not necessarily align well with distinct research cultures, disciplinary complexities, strategic institutional initiatives, or rapid changes in the use of technology that occur in current university settings.

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