Design conversations and informal chats: ‘situated’ professional development, community, and casual tutors in undergraduate architectural design education

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that in undergraduate architectural design education, professional learning and the formation of casual academics as university educators occur while ‘situated’ in tutorials through design conversations with students and as-needed chats with colleagues. For casual academics, such disciplinary, routine, and informal activities develop their agency, construct/reconstruct their personal knowledge about teaching, build shared knowledge, and foster supportive communities. Given the discontinuous contractual engagements of casual academics in universities, understanding the nature and characteristics of their teaching conversations makes visible their teaching knowledge, expertise, and professional development needs as university educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Architectural education
• casual academics
• design studio
• professional development
• professional learning and formation

Acknowledgments

My deepest gratitude to casual tutors who generously gave their time to participate in this study, sincere appreciation for constructive feedback from reviewers and support from Deanne Gannaway and Sandra Kaji-O’Grady.

Disclosure statement

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

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2022.2051515

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aparna Datey

Aparna Datey is a higher education researcher and educator at the University of Queensland. She has experience as a practicing architect, academic advisor, and casual academic. Her expertise is in pedagogy and practice-based research and studio- and research-based teaching. Her doctoral research on studio teaching of practicing architect casual academics within institutional and pedagogical cultures emphasizes the complexity of individual work and practices. Her research provides an architectural lens and highlights the importance of interactions, conversations, spaces, and shared materials in design education and suggests alternatives for professional development of all academics that complement formal programs offered by universities.