Resumen de ‘Apologies I can’t be there...’: encountering and countering academic disinterestin sotl–related continuing professional development
This paper reflects on the challenges of shaping change in teaching and learning culture atdisciplinary level. It introduces a project called Social Policy Educators: Enhancing Digital Skills (SPEEDS),which is a national initiative that has been in operation over the past two and a half years. As a projectfocusing on Continuing Professional Development, its core aim is to expand social policy educators’digital capacities in teaching and learning practice through providing training in collaboration withlearning technologists and instructional designers across Ireland.This paper describes the professional development initiatives introduced through this project andcomments on their impact. Furthermore, it presents the experiences of two of the lead academics whodesigned and implemented the project. Their initial belief was that colleagues would be enthusiasticlearners who would be highly interested in developing digital skills. However, this assumption provedto be problematic and to obfuscate significant tensions associated with teaching and learning in theneoliberalised 21st century institution. These issues manifest as academics’ apparent lack of investmentin the project, stemming from lack of time, lack of confidence, and a lack of incentive to learn newskills. These appear to be connected to snobbery about the relative value of SoTL and the low status ofteaching and learning-oriented research by comparison with disciplinary research.This paper is informed by SoTL literature on barriers to change (Brownell and Tanner, 2012). Itexamines ideas relevant to leadership for change (Miller-Young et al., 2017) from the perspective of earlycareer academics seeking to improve teaching and learning practices within their discipline, therebystrengthening its contemporary impact and relevance. It looks for ways of invigorating practice throughbuilding on microcultures in higher education institutions that facilitate informal learning (Roxå andMårtensson, 2015) and explores pathways for creating cultural change through nurturing supportive,positive, and inventive professional social practices and social relations.
