Generic or discipline‐specific? An exploration of the significance of discipline‐specific issues in researching and developing teaching and learning in higher education

Abstract

This article explores competing conceptions of university teaching as, on the one hand, a generic professional practice and, on the other hand, an activity which can only be understood in the context of discipline‐specific issues. The article draws on empirical research by the author, within the discipline of social policy, to question recent claims that the significance of the disciplines in higher education means that pedagogical understanding must also be discipline‐based. Dialogue with other authors of discipline‐based research also suggests the significance of individual disciplines in pedagogical development has been over‐stated. Although recognising the continued significance of subject disciplines in shaping academic identities and of the belief that teaching issues are subject‐specific, the article argues for a more sophisticated mapping of teaching and learning issues across the disciplines. The article also suggests that search for discipline‐specific educational development as a means of relating to academics’ interests may cloud deeper issues relating to the lack of parity of esteem relating to teaching and discipline‐based research.

Keywords:

• social policy
• pedagogy
• university teaching
• subject‐specific
• generic
• disciplines