University curriculum systems are complex, and their modification requires coordinating multiple processes and broad consultation with teaching academics and leaders. Strong influences including policy changes and external disruptions can bring about rapid system-wide change, but these are not without stress and may not be sustainable. To…

We explore the idea that teaching students as "scholars" can change their education within a values discourse that promotes certain personal attributes, including being engaged members of their university and society. The idea partially opposes the dominant neoliberal framing of higher education but is not foreign to normal academic…

This article responds to a trend of people pursuing academic careers after, or alongside, participation in popular music scenes and subcultures, applying scholarly perspectives on how identity can inform teaching and recognising the pedagogical benefits of teachers drawing on their multifaceted lives. The authors reflect critically on their…

Having recently completed my first decade in China's Normal System, in this Point of Departure (PoD) I explore precarity in higher education teaching using four tools: "slipstream," "fugia hacia adelante," "exophony," and autoethnography. This is an exploration in the form of a structured performance of precarities…

Activity theory is a relatively young methodology for researching higher education teaching practices. Beyond systemic analyse of workplace activities and their development, activity theory used in its full interventionist capacity can foster practitioners' transformative agency to initiate practice change. Nevertheless, this is not an easy…

The paper sets out a conceptual argument that the choice of teaching method is part of the freedom to teach in higher education. It enters into a dialogue with the views of Stephen Finn in a paper published in "Teaching in Higher Education" in which he argues that academic freedom should be limited in respect to teaching methods. The…

This paper explores tensions and ambiguities for UK HE teachers during COVID-19. It analyses changed behaviours and routines for existing hybrid workers experienced in online pedagogy through three core axes of "precarity and security;" "time and perceptions of time;" and "communication." Twelve participants supplied…

This paper examines the proposition that the quality of university teaching in the research-intensive university is affected by various compliance demands on academic work that are meant to either enhance or be complementary to teaching. These include holding academics to account for the quality of both research and teaching. Our research aims to…

This paper reports the changes that occurred in the didactic approaches of three professors who participated in a project intended to develop new ways of teaching mathematics to second year university students. An enactivist perspective is used to address the process of change that emerged as a result from interactions during project meetings. We…

In this paper, I report my investigation of the use of metaphors in teaching theory in electronic engineering. I give a description of the nature of metaphors, how they are used in teaching the theory and some of the problems that might arise in the process. I investigate how some people react to the metaphors and how others forget the metaphors…

This paper uses the notion of perspectives, derived from Activity Systems Theory as a lens through which to examine the process of change in one UK university. It argues that change is a multidimensional phenomenon and so examines the drivers and barriers towards change in teaching practices through the differing and at times conflicting…

Recent literature in higher and adult education has identified "authenticity" in teaching as a significant yet under-researched phenomenon lacking a straight-forward definition. By exploring how academic teachers and their students, next to educational theorists and philosophers, understand the notion of authenticity in teaching we offer…

Discourse about the scholarship of teaching and learning appears to represent some views about higher education more than others. For example, disciplinary perspectives have been acknowledged, and ideas from critical theory and phenomenography have been presented, with the role of reflection receiving considerable attention. While approaches to…

This study explored the effects of web-enabled pedagogies on students' involvement in learning. A series of quasi-experiments were conducted to investigate whether students' involvement increases over time if intervened, respectively, by problem-based learning (PBL), self-regulated learning (SRL), and their combinations. Two classes of 102…

In this essay, the author draws on her experience as a minority teacher conducting a course called "Neighborhood, Community, and Identity" to outline some important lessons for minority teachers attempting to teach diversity: (1) When teaching dissident material, it is especially important to create a classroom climate that encourages all students…