Crossing epistemic boundaries – the professional learning of academics in higher education

For academics in UK Higher Education (HE), professional learning (PL) is a complex and messy endeavour, especially in a climate of managerialist targets and performance. To maintain their authenticity and credibility, academics are expected to be cognizant with a range of knowledge domains that cut across various epistemic boundaries, often sitting outside of their subject discipline or teaching practices suggesting conflicting priorities in what is learnt (e.g. subject discipline versus institutional policies).

Using sociomaterial approaches (Actor-Network Theory and Non-Representational Theory) as my theoretical framework, I explore how those conditions (e.g. academic role), situations (e.g. time pressures), spaces (e.g. shared offices), technologies (e.g. e-mail) and discourses (e.g. UK HE policy) can come to enable or encumber an academic's engagement with PL. A mixed methods approach enabled me to draw data from numerous sources: university policies, academic staff survey (n:182), academic staff interviews (n:12) followed by a photovoice activity (n:12).

The analysis indicated that PL and academic work are intrinsically entwined, thus difficult to separate. Academics tended to be opportunistic or strategic in prioritising what they needed to learn. More often than not, their PL was aligned towards the student experience. The need to ‘hide’ or ‘escape’ to a space that enabled academics to learn/work freely was a dominant discourse. Specific rituals and routines (i.e. listening to music, drinking coffee) enabled academics to focus their attention towards learning/working. This suggests that a social constructivist model of PL is inadequate and fails to recognise the ‘invisible’ dimensions to the PL of HE academics.