Why is it problematic for technicians to say they teach in higher education?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi33.1191Keywords:
technicians, technical, teaching, pedagogy, third spaceAbstract
This article challenges the popular misconception that technicians do not teach within higher education (HE). Writing from their experiences as technicians and educational researchers within the creative arts (Savage) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) (Vere), the authors question why many technicians feel unable to describe their teaching activities as teaching, calling for greater recognition of technicians’ pedagogic contribution to the sector, while also arguing that through the activities of teaching, the boundaries between academic and technical roles have become increasingly blurred.
Drawing on Whitchurch’s concept of a ‘Third Space’, the article highlights how political, economic, social and technological factors have transformed HE since the turn of the millennium to establish the conditions in which technical roles and teaching have become increasingly sophisticated and prevalent. The authors argue that academic roles have simultaneously been disaggregated during this same period, exacerbating complexities, tensions, and overlaps that further problematise what was once a straightforward binary between academic and technical roles, challenging orthodoxies, identities and dominant hegemonies.
The authors call upon the sector to formally acknowledge this valuable element of HE and to integrate it not just into the language but into the formal functions, structures, systems and strategies to create a unified space in which academic and technical educators integrate and collaborate to develop curricula and deliver pedagogies that enhance student learning and advance knowledge.
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