‘The danger of a single story:’ a reflection on institutional change, voices, identities, power, and outcomes

ABSTRACT

What role does academic development have to play in responding to radical cultural shifts in the global landscape? Whose voices and identities are contributing to institutional change? This reflective essay encompasses the perspectives of the four international panellists in the opening plenary of the International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED) 2018 conference in Atlanta, Georgia, USA – Torgny Roxå on ideologies; Chng Huang Hoon on agency and empowerment; Joy Mighty on voices and identities; and Mary Deane Sorcinelli on evidence and outcomes. These perspectives set the stage for the conference, and, brought together in this paper now, they address key conference themes, offer coordinates for reflection, and pose further questions about our profession.

KEYWORDS:

• Voices
• identities
• power
• outcomes
• ideology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chng Huang Hoon

Chng Huang Hoon is Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education) and Associate Professor in the Department of English Language & Literature at the National University of Singapore. She serves as Regional Vice President (Asia Pacific) of ISSOTL. She is the author of the book, Separate and Unequal: Judicial Rhetoric and Women’s Rights.

Joy Mighty

Joy Mighty is Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada, where she also holds a joint appointment as a Full Professor in the Sprott School of Business and the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies. She is the co-editor of Taking Stock: Research on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. She is a former President of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Torgny Roxå

Torgny Roxå works at Lund University Faculty of Engineering with a research focus on organisational change in higher education through a socio-cultural perspective. He has organised and taught pedagogical courses for academic teachers since 1988, and has initiated several institutional and national development programs. He has served as regional vice-president (Europe) of ISSOTL.

Mary Deane Sorcinelli

Mary Deane Sorcinelli is Senior Fellow, Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development, University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has published over 100 books, book chapters and articles, on scholarly writing, mentoring, and most recently co-authoring Faculty Development in the Age of Evidence. Mary Deane served as President of the POD Network.

Michele DiPietro

Michele DiPietro is Executive Director, Faculty Development, Recognition, and Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Kennesaw State University. They co-authored How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. Their scholarship focuses on learning sciences, educational development, and diversity and inclusion. They are a former president of the POD Network.