Becoming a Master in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Some issues raised by problematizing ‘Mastery’ on a learner‐led MA programme

Abstract

As the international community of educational developers begins to create a new generation of master's programmes concerned with teaching and learning in higher education and related fields, the opportunity arises to reflect on the relationship between the educational issues they raise and the wider social discourses within which they are situated. This paper focuses on one such MA that offers a programme structure and process which not only supports participants in attaining and demonstrating mastery, but also involves them in defining the form of mastery appropriate to their own professional needs and aspirations. Participants identify their professional profile on entry, construct the master's profile they wish to attain, and negotiate a learning pathway to get from one to the other. The paper outlines the principles and practice of the MA, locates it in a wider context of educational development, and explores issues raised by approaching professional mastery in this way, particularly the problematization of the very notion of ‘Mastery’, with its gendered and other connotations. It is intended as a contribution to open debate about appropriate structures, processes and terminology in the burgeoning development of master's programmes in learning and teaching in higher education — to raise questions rather than to provide answers.