Abstracts - Earli

Developing a research community in higher education: from Student feedback to knowledgeconstructionNaomi Irvine, University of Cambridge, United KingdomPatrick Carmichael, University of Cambridge, United KingdomThis paper describes a series of research and development projects into teaching and learningpractices in Higher Education which have been undertaken at the University of Cambridge underthe auspices of the Pedagogy Programme of the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI). These haveinvolved a collaboration between groups of staff and students in participating departments and ateam of education researchers based at the Centre for Applied Research in Education Technologies(CARET). We describe the evolution, over a period of about two years, of an organisation(CARET), of research processes, of educational practices and resources, and of roles andrelationships of researchers and participants. Most critically there has been a negotiation of normsand expectations on the part of participants and the legitmization of discourses in a shared‘problem space’. The research and development process can be conceptualised as one of ‘coconfiguration’with continual renegotiation of requirements and solutions. Roles and approacheshave developed as researchers have gained better understanding of the priorities and ‘ways ofthinking and practicing’ of other participants and those participants have in turn become familiarwith the techniques and theoretical perspectives of education researchers. The importance of‘boundary-crossing’ objects which provide points of focus for discourse and development isdiscussed, and what these might be in the context of education research and development projects.The paper concludes with a description of a new initiative informed by this view of research anddevelopment as co-configuration: the Teaching for Learning Network (TfLN), designed to supportfurther pedagogical interventions across a variety of disciplines and institutions.University teacher identities and graduate attributes: What are we becoming?Simon Barrie, The University of Sydney, AustraliaCarolin Kreber, The University of Edinburgh, United KingdomVelda McCune, The University of Edinburgh, United KingdomThis paper reports on qualitative research in Australia and the UK, which explored the issue offormation of teacher identity in university academics and how this identity might contribute to thedevelopment of the sorts of generic outcomes espoused by higher education. The Australiancomponent of the research investigated the identities academics in different disciplines reported asbeing embodied in their teaching and their participation in the academic life of their department,which served to foster the development in students of the universities core generic graduateattributes of scholarship, lifelong learning and global citizenship. The UK component of theresearch identified the complex factors that contribute to shaping academic identity based in aprocess of learning as participants in a community of practice. The paper reports the findings ofthese studies and, through a synthesis of the findings, offers a new perspective for consideringacademic identity and its formation, in relation to the core outcomes of higher education. In doingso it offers some preliminary insights linking academic identity formation with the process ofidentity formation espoused for students in higher education. An idea of academic identity isadvanced in relation to the needs of today’s learners, which encompasses the characteristic‘actions’ of academics in their teaching and interactions as members of the university ofcommunity and a consideration of the factors that influence the formation of such an academicidentity. A key feature of the findings is the need for authenticity in teaching and engaging withlearners as members of academic communities of practice. The implications for curriculum reformand academic practice will be considered. An argument will be advanced for a reconsideration of– 101 –