The Senses Framework: Understanding the Professional Development of Postgraduates Who Teach

Amy Burge,Maria Grade Godinho,Daphne Loads,Miesbeth Knottenbelt

doi:10.14297/jpaap.v5i3.249

Amy Burge, Maria Grade Godinho + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14297/jpaap.v5i3.249

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Abstract

The aim of this research project was to deepen our understanding of the professional development of postgraduates who teach (tutors). Using arts-based methods, we asked postgraduate tutors and senior staff how they saw tutors’ roles and development needs. Based on our research outcomes, we found that both postgraduate tutors and senior staff were concerned in their different ways about a lack of community, the administrative burden on tutors, the importance of enjoyment, how tutoring should be recognised and valued, and the question of training versus development. We make use of a framework borrowed from gerontological nursing for thinking about and addressing these issues in practice. Note: In this paper, ‘tutor’ refers to the part-time, adjunct, assistant, sessional or casual staff who make a significant contribution to small and large-group teaching, assessment and feedback in higher education. We are particularly concerned here with postgraduates who teach; ‘senior staff’ refers to a variety of colleagues who have some responsibility for supporting tutor development, including course organisers, senior tutors and administrative staff.

Highlights

Lost, invisible, intangible, an “academic underclass” (Brand, 2013; Sharaff & Lessinger, 1994, p. 12; as cited in McCormack & Kelly, 2013, p. 94): this is how tutors in higher education have been described
A central theme that emerged from both tutor and senior staff responses was the need for tutors to feel that they belonged to a community of support for teaching and learning
Tutors need to feel they belong to a community of academics who value their contribution to learning and teaching

Summary

Introduction

Invisible, intangible, an “academic underclass” (Brand, 2013; Sharaff & Lessinger, 1994, p. 12; as cited in McCormack & Kelly, 2013, p. 94): this is how tutors in higher education have been described. The importance of tutors as a resource for carrying out a range of teaching duties across the disciplines at our own institution – a large UK elite university – has been documented since the early 1990s (Knottenbelt & Fiddes, 1994) Key issues affecting this group include inconsistency of remuneration; lack of career structure, teaching development opportunities and on-going support; isolation from course teams; exclusion from feedback and monitoring processes; lack of acknowledgement of their efforts and general institutional invisibility; and lack of resources and poor organisation (see e.g. Tomkinson, 2013). Researchers have addressed these issues by focusing on practical interventions, namely: investigating tutor support and development programmes Recommendations have been made about the need for discipline-specific and detailed local briefings and the limited value of generic institution-wide induction (Chadha, 2013; Goodlad, 1997; Lueddekke, 1997); the benefits of peer support, face-to-face meetings and networking especially in relation to assessment and feedback (Handley, den Outer, & Price 2013); the importance of the relationship between tutors and their teaching teams (Devenish et al, 2009; Jawitz, 2007; Smissen, 2003;) and the pressing need to resolve the structural ambiguity around the tutor role (Luzia & Harvey, 2013; Muzaka, 2009) so that their activities can be properly resourced and formally integrated into university policies and procedures

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