Supporting Teaching Practice Development Through Brokerage: A reflective case study from a third-space professional

Abstract

Academic literacies have developed an increasingly prominent profile in curriculum design and delivery in higher education, which has seen an increase in those with learning development (LD) roles taking on academic development (AD) responsibilities. Learning Developers have joined other academic ‘third-space professionals’ (Whitchurch, 2012) in pursuing recognition of their work, and its value, through Advance HE senior fellowship (SFHEA), but who may also find aligning their experiences and expertise to the Professional Standards Framework (PSF) (AdvanceHE, 2023) challenging.

This paper is based on a case study used in my successful SFHEA application, aligned to the previous UKPSF (2011) descriptors. It focuses on the use of ‘brokerage’ to support and mentor academics in relation to teaching and learning in my previous role as a learning developer (LD) with academic development responsibilities and reflects on how working relationships between teaching faculty and LD or AD colleagues might be transformed to create a more inclusive curriculum. It is also hoped that other ‘third space professionals’ may find this case study useful in their own Senior Fellowship HEA applications.