The nature of academic appointments in Australia has changed. Given the recent emergence and growth of teaching focused academics roles across countries and contexts, in this conceptual paper we begin by parsing the language and role descriptions used for these academic appointments. Then, we consider what we know about teaching focused academics roles, and the research approaches used in these studies. We identify that teaching focused academics s struggle to understand, capture, and represent the knowledge creation component of their academic workload. We argue there is a need for research that builds a richer and holistic understanding of teaching focused roles and their workloads. We offer a solution: a learning-practice conceptual framework -- combining Ann Webster-Wright's authentic professional learning and Trowler's practice sensibility with Goodyear's framework for design -- to open new vistas of research and policy implementation.