Wise academic development: learning from the ‘failure’ experiences of retired academic developers

ABSTRACT

Informed by Constructive Developmental Theory and the Threshold Concepts Framework, we interviewed retired academic developers from four continents and asked them to describe their processes of learning from perceived failures and how they see the role of academic developers in supporting academics through failures. Findings regarding participants’ definitions of failure, ways of making sense of and learning from failure, and recommendations for supporting academic colleagues’ learning from failure are shared through tables, quotations, and poetry. Findings show that ‘wise academic development’ embraces curiosity about failure, integrates the (sometimes) transformative nature of failure, shares the load of sense-making, and cultivates connectedness.

KEYWORDS:

• Failure
• learning
• threshold concepts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julie A. Timmermans

Julie A. Timmermans is a Senior Lecturer in the Higher Education Development Centre at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She is grateful for the many wise academic developers who have been her teachers and mentors.

Kathryn A. Sutherland

Kathryn A. Sutherland has worked in academic development at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand for 20 years, but she is still learning what it means to do academic development wisely.