Academic developers as ‘romantic incubators’? The role of growth and professional support in our work

Abstract

Although initial descriptors vary globally, terms such as educational development, academic development, and faculty development are joined by the common word, ‘development’. The idea of development implies a function oriented towards growth, encouragement, and professional support. Land (2001, p. 6), focusing on the individual academic developer, titles this orientation the ‘romantic (ecological humanist)’, which is ‘concerned with the personal development, growth and well-being of individual practitioners within the organization’. Others, looking at academic development organisations, have labeled this function the ‘incubator’ role (POD Network, 2018; Wright, 2023). As an incubator, academic development units support individual growth and development through one-on-one initiatives such as consultations and coaching, as well as programmatic approaches such as orientations and mentoring. In both cases, the romantic (ecological humanist) orientation and incubator strategies are presented as approaches that individuals and academic units might intentionally occupy. For example, in Land’s work, romantic is one of 12 possible orientations. Similarly, an incubator approach is one of four change strategies that an academic unit, such as a centre for teaching and learning, might leverage. Therefore, what are the affordances of this particular orientation or strategy, compared to other possibilities? There are compelling reasons to implement romantic/incubator approaches to academic development. As Timmermans et al. (2018, p. 370) write, ‘Care is arguably part of the underlying ethos of our work as educational developers’. This core value is embodied in these supportive and developmental orientations. An additional foundational component of the work of academic development is change (Grupp, 2014; Timmermans, 2014; Weston & Finkelstein, 2017). Critically reflective change or reflection-in-action are guiding threads woven through many of these approaches, with the objective of promoting transformation or self-realization. Finally, at the level of the group or institution, these approaches contribute to institutional enhancement, by enabling career success and pathways to leadership, in ways that align with definitions of the field (Felten et al., 2007; Sutherland, 2018) The articles and book review in the current issue illustrate the romantic/incubator approaches in various endeavours. One important form of these initiatives is mentoring. Bojko and Kowalczyk (2023) found that mentoring enhances the growth of early-career academics in Poland and enables them to make steady scientific progression. However, Bojko and Kowalczyk also highlight that mentoring in their context was found to be in a rather traditional form, with senior scholars passing knowledge to their junior counterparts. Alkhatnai (2023) discovered that a year-long mentoring programme for university administrators across eight Saudi universities benefited mentees when trust is established. Like in Bojko and Kowalczyk’s study, certain cultural biases were found to limit INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT 2023, VOL. 28, NO. 1, 1–4 https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2023.2178705