Academic developers enter the field of academic development (AD) from various disciplines and at different stages of their careers. They bring with them their academic experiences, home disciplinary culture and presumptions about what AD is. These circumstances inform the initial professional identity for those working in what has been described…

Academic middle leaders play a critical role in facilitating the leadership of learning and teaching in universities. Previous research has reported the undervaluing and under-resourcing of these academic middle leadership roles. To promote a greater understanding of academic middle leaders, middle leading and middle leadership of learning and…

This article examines the democratic hopes for the community of philosophical inquiry (CPI), a mode of deliberative discussion, when social justice is both the topic and the goal of discussion. It shares insights from a CPI that was used as an intersubjective research method (Golding, 2015) to enable the authors to interrogate their assumptions…

A growing expectation that academic staff in higher education institutions (HEIs) will be qualified to doctoral level can mean that doctoral study must be juggled alongside administration, teaching, and academic duties. Many academics study in their own institutions. We wished to explore their perspectives on (i) how the two roles, of being an…

In this article, we explore the extent to which 42 newer researchers, in the academic sub-field of higher education, were aware of, responded to and negotiated their careers in relation to higher education policies. Participants, who were mainly from European countries, tended to divide into two similarly sized groups: one that engaged with and…

The importance of the Special Needs Coordinator (SENCO) in facilitating inclusive and equitable education is well supported in the literature with many countries formalising the role through legislation and policy. New Zealand however, while adopting the role of SENCO, has not formalised this role, meaning that those in SENCO positions in New…

Student supervision is a key factor underpinning the success of work-integrated learning programs. Supervisory responsibilities can be shared across a number of stakeholders including university staff and host/workplace supervisors. While there have been attempts to understand the roles played by each of these stakeholders, little research has…

The study that provides the context for this article developed from a major overhaul of the practicum in an undergraduate initial teacher education degree in which practicum roles and relationships were re-envisaged. The aim was to reinvigorate university-school practicum relationships through the collaborative development of a practicum where…

This Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project was a 2-year exploratory study focusing on differentiating the curriculum in response to individual learner differences. The project was designed to explore learning and teaching of differentiated scientific content through observational processes and the expression of that learning…

This paper highlights the use of a drama convention--"Role on the Wall"--to teach the Nature of Science (NOS) in a Year 7/8 classroom. Students were positioned as "expert" scientists re-investigating the science behind the sinking of the Wahine in a Mantle of the Expert unit. Students drew a "Role on the Wall" of a…

The effectiveness of academic induction is under-monitored by higher education institutions (HEIs) despite growing evidence that some academics, facing increased expectations and rising accountability within higher education (HE), perceive a lack of support from their institution. In this paper, we argue that HEIs should follow the example of…

This study examines the acculturative challenges facing non-English speaking background (NESB) international doctoral students in the process of discipline enculturation. Twenty NESB doctoral students at three New Zealand universities from eleven countries participated in the semistructured interviews. The study has found that their transformative…

This exploratory study of female general staff across New Zealand universities examined career motivation, subjective discrimination and home and occupational salience. Career development and aspirations and multiple home and community commitments were examined through a self-administered online questionnaire. Skill recognition, a good…

The last decade or so has seen an emerging literature supporting the position that school leaders and school leadership are important. This article argues, however, that recent developments in the area of school leadership have led to an orthodoxy that needs to be challenged and tested. It is an orthodoxy that has been driven essentially by those…

This exploratory case study, arising from a longitudinal project into the establishment of a new secondary school in New Zealand, examines reflective practice through critical friend roles among staff. The paper describes, through the lens of Bourdieu's logic of practice, the implementation of a critical friendship approach linked to the school…