Topic outline
-
Building a Community of Practice of Socially Just Educators in Higher Education
Dr Sarah Hattam & Tanya Weiler are recipients of an Australian Award for University Teaching 2019 and Educator Innovation Award 2020 for their suite of professional development initiatives. Their experience of teaching non-traditional students over the last decade has provided opportunities to examine and reassess traditional HE pedagogy, that at times functions to exclude diverse learners and leads to disengagement from the university (Burke & Crozier 2013). Hattam & Weiler’s research into the experiences of sessional staff at UniSA revealed the necessity to provide continual professional development opportunities that not only support the enhancement of teaching practice, but also encourages staff to examine their pedagogy within the HE context (Hattam & Weiler 2020).
Across the tertiary sector, it is well documented that sessional academics, whilst comprising majority of the academic workforce are frequently excluded from, or do not have, tailored professional development opportunities, yet these are recognised as essential, especially those relating to specific learning and teaching strategies (Crimmins, Oprescu & Nash, 2017).
The Teaching Innovation Unit has also developed a fantastic portal of professional development resources that everyone can access here.
Across the year, we may also invite you to participate in the 'Teaching Square' initiatives that involves a peer-review process of your teaching. Please contact Tanya Weiler if you would like to participate in Teaching Squares this year tanya.weiler@unisa.edu.au. Sarah Hattam also facilitates Action Research projects across the year (see this page for more information).
The Centre for Excellence in Equity in Higher Education at University of Newcastle has produced compelling and thought provoking professional development resources - you can find them here
To access the repository of our Professional Development workshops, click here
On-line Professional Development Modules
Are you interested in gaining a deeper understanding of widening participation in Higher Education and supporting our increasingly diverse cohort of students?
This course builds your knowledge of inclusion, diversity and best-practice pedagogies to help you build a Community of Practice at your university. There are four sub-modules, each which include a range of activities to help you explore and apply the topics in a self-paced way.
Click on the 'NEXT' button below to access the modules. Take the time to complete the quizzes and also consider the reading recommendations.