Over a nice, hot cup of tea! Reflecting on the conditions for meaningful, informal conversations between academic developers and novice academics

ABSTRACT

Informal conversation has always been important in academic development as a means of getting academics to open up and share their experiences. Academic developers use explicit techniques to make this informality apparent, for example, through discussions following teaching observations. There are also more implicit, subtle strategies used to nudge these informal conversations. Two of these strategies are discussed in this reflective piece as they are otherwise rarely reported on: the inclusion of refreshments and the importance of vulnerability.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal conversation
• novice academic
• refreshments
• vulnerability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Deesha Chadha

Dr Deesha Chadha is a senior strategic teaching fellow in the department of chemical engineering at Imperial College London. Before that she was an academic developer at King’s College London having directed (including design and evaluation) a couple of institutional-wide flagship programmes in academic practice.