Open Lecture at University of Greenwich

1. Professor Tansy
Jessop
“At home everywhere and
nowhere: The place of Pedagogic
Research in HE”
17:30pm, 21 November 2018 in
QA065
THE BROADCAST WILL BEGIN SHORTLY
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may have 1 or 2 minutes delay
@tansyjtweets

2. At home everywhere…
I’m feeling cosy
on the sofa
The neighbours
really love our
garden!
Please can
you pass the
marmalade

3. …and nowhere

4. Pedagogic research in HE: in quest of belonging
• An invitation about your and my good reads, and a question.
• A brief synopsis of the state of play: who, what and why
• The unintended consequences of SOTL
• The low status problem: Your and my theories
• The challenge: being critical, getting beyond everyday knowledge, and
writing better

10. Your good read/s
• Think of an article or book that really struck home for you or made
you see different angles or think in new ways.
• Go to www.menti.com and type in 79 48 1
• Write down three words or phrases which capture what made it such
a good article or book for you

11. Times have changed…
Universities today are homes of research
into almost every subject save one –
themselves. There are few fields of social
science in which painstaking
investigation is more necessary and less
often pursued.
Lord James of Rusholme, 1965,

12. A brief synopsis of the state of play

13. Exponential growth: a snapshot
Tight, M. 2012.
Higher education
research 2000–2010:
changing
journal publication
patterns. HERD.
31:5, 723-740,

14. But what about books?
HEFCE, 2016.
Publication
patterns in research
underpinning
impact in REF2014
A report to HEFCE
by Digital Science

15. A combination of this…

16. …and that. Journals are #1 currency

17. So how did HE outputs do in REF 2014?
HE-focused submissions = 9% of the Education UOA 25.
Majority of HE-related outputs were in sector specific:
• Studies in Higher Education (64)
• Higher Education (28)
• Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education (25)
• Teaching in Higher Education (20)
• British Educational Research Journal (7/155 = HE focused).
Cotton, D., W. Miller and P. Kneale. 2018. The Cinderella of academia: Is higher education pedagogic research undervalued in
UK research assessment? Studies in Higher Education. Vol. 43, No. 9, 1625–1636

18. Who writes pedagogic research?
Tight, M. 2012. Higher education research 2000–2010: changing journal publication patterns. HERD. 31:5, 723-740,
6 11 17 25 31
48
57
79
109
184
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Engineering Humanities Science Medicine Administration Academic
development
Business Social science Unknown Education
Departmental location of first authors

19. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Course Design
Student experience
Academic work
System policy
Institutional management
Quality
Teaching/Learning
Knowledge & research
Themes in 567 articles in 15 journals (2010)

20. Why do people write about learning and teaching?
• Excitement
• The field is the classroom
• Curiosity about why things go right or wrong
• Adventurous about trying new approaches and evaluating them
• Mainly educationists or academic developers
• The climate is right because of SOTL….

21. The unintended consequences of SOTL

22. Has SOTL strengthened the research-teaching divide?
Scholarship of discovery
‘Proper’ research
Subject-based research
Scholarship of teaching
High status
Not ‘proper’ research
Pedagogic research
Low status
Macfarlane, B. 2011. “Prizes,
Pedagogic Research and
Teaching Professors. Lowering
the Status of Teaching and
Learning Through Bifurcation.”
Teaching in Higher Education 16
(1): 127–30.

23. Bridging the divide
The distinction between ‘subject-based’ and ‘pedagogic’
research is entirely erroneous. What really matters is
whether a piece of research is based on sound methods,
has something interesting or useful to ‘say’ and has been
properly peer reviewed before publication. The only
important distinction is between good research and poor
research.
Macfarlane, B. 2011. “Prizes, Pedagogic Research and Teaching Professors: Lowering the Status of Teaching and Learning Through
Bifurcation.” Teaching in Higher Education 16 (1): 127–30.

24. But is there a problem with most pedagogic
research?
• Go to www.menti.com and type in 58 98 16
• Write down three common problems with the quality of
pedagogic research

25. My stab at common problems
1) Too local problem
2) New kid on the block problem
3) Grand theory problem, with very few detractors
4) A style problem: obfuscation and educational jargon

26. Problem 1 and 2: Too local? Too new?
Understanding the grammar of knowledge (Karl Maton)

27. Problem 3: The grand theory problem
(Haggis 2003; 2009)
Cognitive psychology
Approaches to learning
Curricular innovation
Social context
Critical perspectives
Discourse/writing
HE – Higher Education; SiHE – Studies in Higher Education; THE – Teaching in Higher Education

28. One of the fundamental problems with the view of learning that the model presents is
that it removes the individual learner from the richness and complexity of his/multiple
contexts. It also constructs 'the learner' as a being passively created by experience',
and passively amenable to reconstruction as a 'deep' learner through set of moulding
processes that take place within the university. The learner, in model, is a human
being without agency.
(Haggis 2003, 98).

29. Problem 4: Inelegant, bland, jargon-filled writing
Helen Sword (2009)
Writing higher
education differently:
a manifesto on
style, Studies in
Higher Education,
34:3, 319-336

30. Even medics write more personally than educationists…
Helen Sword 2017, Keynote at ISSOTL, Calgary

31. We need to look to our own houses…
Where is the hoover?
I need to hoover up
the jargon!I need to mow
the lawn!
Dry toast and
high theory
please!

32. And turn writing from dry talk about teaching…

33. …into a feast, a meal to chew on!

34. References
Cotton, D. , W. Miller & P. Kneale (2018) The Cinderella of academia: Is higher education
pedagogic research undervalued in UK research assessment?, Studies in Higher Education,
43:9, 1625-1636
Haggis, T. (2003) Constructing Images of Ourselves? A Critical Investigation into 'Approaches
to Learning‘ Research in Higher Education. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1
89-104
Haggis, T. (2009) What have we been thinking of? A critical overview of 40 years of student
learning research in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 34:4, 377-390.
HEFCE, (2016) Publication patterns in research underpinning impact in REF2014. A report to
HEFCE by Digital Science.
Macfarlane, B. 2011. “Prizes, Pedagogic Research and Teaching Professors: Lowering the
Status of Teaching and Learning Through Bifurcation.” Teaching in Higher Education 16 (1):
127–30.
Sword, H. (2009) Writing higher education differently: a manifesto on style, Studies in Higher
Education, 34:3, 319-336.
Tight, M. 2012. Higher education research 2000–2010: changing journal publication patterns.
HERD. 31:5, 723-740,