Academic development in times of crisis

At the time we called for proposals for an IJAD special issue on academic development in times of crisis in late 2020, there appeared to be a series of events and phenomena that seemed to fit the crisis label, both in relation to higher education and more broadly. The most obvious crisis was COVID-19, but there were others, such as climate change (and denial), the Black Lives Matter movement in response to endemic police brutality and institutional racism in the US and beyond, earthquakes and bushfires in various parts of the world, and the development of the ‘post-truth’ era, to name just a few. Since then, COVID-19 has itself become a series of crises, in the form of mutating variants, while a seemingly continuous stream of natural disasters and a number of wars have only added to a profound sense of instability and indeed crisis.

At the time, we deliberately defined crises broadly to allow for both local and global issues, and to consider crises that may relate to public health, economic, political, social, climate, institutional, personal, ethical, or any other factors that disrupt the status quo in significant ways. Crises are crossroads that challenge existing systems and compel us to reconsider our assumptions; crises often present existential threats, yet importantly, they might also be opportunities for positive change. Indeed, as Bauman and Bordoni have argued, ‘”crisis”, in its proper sense, expresses something positive, creative, and optimistic, because it involves a change, and may be a rebirth after a break-up … In short, it [can be seen as] the predisposing factor to change that prepares for future adjustments, which is by no means depressing’ (2014, p. 2). This is an attractive way of approaching the idea of crisis, as it creates the promise of new beginnings and the opportunity to reflect on what we do and how we do it. A crisis has the tendency to shake us up a little (or a lot) and thereby force us to rethink our sometimes longstanding practice. This equally applies to academic developers. Consequently, rethinking practice was a key thread in the article submissions we received for this special issue. Some authors drew on pre-Covid-19 IJAD publications to think through the potential (and promise) of new beginnings in a post-COVID context. Koris and McKinnon, for example, explore how 'a holistic approach to academic development to encompass ”the whole of the academic role, the whole institution, and the whole person” (Sutherland, 2018, p. 265) [can be used] to prepare HE institutions for similar emergencies' into the future. Such a reflective approach is particularly significant when, as O’Toole et al. note, ‘initial support was reactionary focusing on teaching online, a renewed and more holistic interest in teaching and learning emerged across the institution, with ADs playing a key role in this evolution’. Crisis often calls for an immediate reactive response, but once the dust settles somewhat, opportunities for more reflective and proactive approaches arise, as many of the articles in this special issue show.

Despite the call for papers stressing the broad conceptualisation of ‘crisis’, judging based on the submissions received, COVID-19 appeared to be the predominant crisis due to its unprecedented characteristics (i.e. global, prolonged, and significant impacts on human welfare). Indeed, submitting authors almost exclusively interpreted ‘crisis’ as COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged academic developers to respond creatively to novel and evolving conditions that have put extraordinary stresses on individuals, communities, institutions, and the higher education sector as a whole. Yet, this is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that academic development has confronted profound uncertainty related to the purposes, practices, and contexts of our work. As boundary spanners (Huijser et al., 2020), change agents (Fossland & Sandvoll, 2021), and third space workers (McIntosh & Nutt, 2022), academic developers may be ideally placed to mediate in times of crisis, since abrupt and continuous change can be seen as part of their ‘natural environment’. Yet, this mediation role can also take an emotional toll, especially during a crisis, which, as Compton notes, ‘led to a delicate “tightrope walk” of fulfilling obligations as defined by the senior leadership and meeting the demands of academic colleagues for “top tips” whilst asserting an authentic and compassionate approach that was true to professional values, experience and expertise’. In this context of instability, it is interesting to note that this special issue attracted about the same number of reflections on practice as research articles, which perhaps suggests a more profound rethinking of academic development as a result of a significant crisis in the form of COVID-19. It also shows that we are still largely in the initial stages of responding to this particular crisis. We expect many more empirical studies to follow in the coming years that explore the impacts of COVID-19 with a growing evidence base. The reflections in this special issue constitute an important start of this process.

This rethinking involves reflections on the fundamental need for the right balance between reactive and proactive academic development, especially when it comes to pedagogical approaches to the pivot online. In this respect, there is ‘a sense that institutions are neither grasping nor pursuing the potential of digital affordances and remain focused on returning to “pre-COVID normality”’ (Watermeyer et al.). Yet, this may create silver linings for academic development, as it creates opportunities for significant pedagogical conversations (Pleschová et al., 2021), including conversations about online pedagogies. Furthermore, there is a sense that more collaborative and holistic approaches may be needed, as according to Manley, ‘the virus [has] stripped away the pretense that the success of higher education rests on select parts of the whole’. It is apparent, however, that fostering collaborative dialogue can lead to surfacing emotions, but as Taylor et al. note, these should be harnessed as part of ‘a shared commitment to student success and continuous improvement’. At the same time, it is important to capture the results of our work in more systematic ways, to capitalise on what we have learned about our practice through crisis, and to leverage that learning for more sustainable practice into the future. Marin et al. stress that it is time for ‘new opportunities for measuring, obtaining, analyzing, and reporting on our instructors’ learning and interaction data’. Again, this refers directly to the importance of developing an evidence base around the impact of our practice, including our changed practice. Furthermore, this aids in ensuring that we retain the ‘signature pedagogy of playfulness that underpins our work’, balanced with the goal of sustaining our elevated status and influence (Cunningham & Cunningham) as academic developers. Stanton and Young refer to academic developers as ‘flexible generalists’ in this respect, which similarly touches on the careful balancing act that we perform in our everyday practice between reactive and proactive approaches. Perhaps, the newfound status and influence allows us to be more deliberative in our approaches, as Lundberg and Stigmar suggest.

From the editors’ perspective, we are hopeful that this special issue enables the promise of changed practice and of new beginnings to emerge in response to the profound disruption to higher education that this pandemic has caused. We hope that this special issue may be a starting point to explore those new beginnings with a further promise to position academic development in such a way that the next crisis may be less disruptive.

Disclosure statement

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