The complex transition to academic development: an ecological perspective

ABSTRACTThis paper considers the process of professional becoming for an academic developer as a complex transition towards epistemological plurality. This is a necessary step to appreciate and support the lived experiences of teachers across the spectrum of academic disciplines. Viewed through an ecological lens, the complexity of the developmental journey becomes more achievable as it can be broken down into a series of adaptive cycles that move from ‘dependence’ to ‘independence’, and from ‘epistemologically singular’ to ‘epistemologically plural’. We suggest that the descriptive power of the ecological lens may be helpful to academic developers to contextualize their own professional development.KEYWORDS: Adaptive cycleecological lensepistemological pluralityprofessional development Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsIan M. KinchinIan M. Kinchin is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education within Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, United Kingdom.Suzie PughSuzie Pugh is a Senior Academic Developer within Swansea Academy of Learning and Teaching, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, United Kingdom.