Catalysing pedagogical change in the university ecosystem: Exploring ‘big ideas’ that drive faculty development

Abstract

Improving teaching has continuously been on the agenda worldwide over the past decades (cf. European Commission, 2017; Schumann, Peters, & Olsen, 2013), particularly in a constantly changing higher education climate where new trends cross institutional and national borders. Programs that aim to enhance the quality of teaching and the student learning experience have gradually become a common feature, sometimes even a requirement, of many higher education institutions. In certain geographical areas however, for example Central and Eastern Europe, such development work has only recently begun. Nevertheless, particularly in the post-COVID era, the need for sustainable faculty development initiatives has gained wide recognition and, to a growing extent, become unquestionable. This special issue of the Hungarian Educational Research Journal is therefore a crucial endeavour to situate the international scholarly dialogue about faculty development – also known as educational or academic development – in an intellectual space that has not yet extensively engaged with faculty development practices nor with research on it. Leibowitz (2014) argues that “the way we use the phrase ‘academic development’, or the terrain in which we use it, shifts over time and across geographical locations”, and given this, it is about “the creation of conditions supportive of teaching and learning, in the broadest sense” (p. 359). Known from international institutional practices and reputable scholarly work, academic development units are hence charged with supporting faculty in enhancing their teaching and mentoring, and acting as catalysts for pedagogical change. As Gibbs (2013) remarks, this increasingly complex mission implies diverse theoretical grounding and approaches to faculty development. Over time, Gibbs argues, the academic development practice has moved from advising and consulting individual faculty on their teaching practices to increasingly also focus