Research Seminar: Teaching-specialists in Australian research-intensive universities

Abstract: Teaching-specialist or teaching-focused positions (Probert, 2013) differ from casual teaching positions and teaching-only positions.  They comprise 60+% of academic workload allocated to teaching, with any research time usually assigned to the scholarship of teaching, rather than to discipline-specific research.  Teaching-specialist positions purportedly provide the same opportunities for promotion and staff development as those offered to research-only or research-teaching academics.  In theory, teaching is to be afforded the same status as research.  Whether this is the reality, is one of the issues that this study will explore.

Both narrative and thematic history approaches will be employed to critically analyse the historical forces and the dominant issues that have shaped teaching-specialist positions.

Macro-level themes of globalisation, neo-liberalism, managerialism and New Public Management theory will inform micro-level themes including:

• the role of teachers in universities;
• the status of teaching;
• the nexus between research, teaching, and learning; and
• quality assurance in teaching and learning.

Biography: Julie Hayford is a PhD Candidate at the School of Education at the University of Adelaide.  Contact Julie Hayford