Leadership for teaching and learning: Exploring a department-level educational leadership role at a Swedish comprehensive university

Abstract

As excellence in teaching and learning, in combination with a focus on student performance rates, are guiding the demands placed on higher education institutions, modern universities are attributing strategic importance to leadership of teaching and learning. Previous studies on educational leadership have, nevertheless, identified significant challenges to such leadership due to lack of clear role descriptions, lack of recognition, and lack of access to professional development and support. Using empirical data from a Swedish comprehensive university, we explore the experiences of an appointed leadership role for teaching and learning, that is, the Education Leader, at the department level. Our findings show that a university-wide policy establishing the role and a support structure around it has resulted in a clearly visible and valued role across the university. Furthermore, Education Leaders experience being positioned at the heart of the department’s educational activities, performing hub-like work in relation to those they lead. However, some challenges related to the complexity of the department contexts are also identified.