A narrative account of third space technology enhanced learning and teaching roles working in Australian higher education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi33.1272Keywords:
third space, autoethnography, professional identity, technology enhanced learningAbstract
We provide a collaborative autoethnographic narrative account (Poulos, 2021) of our experiences as practitioners working in overlapping, related Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) roles (academic developer, learning designer, educational technologist) in Australian universities. Despite wide ranging demand for our roles, particularly during and post COVID pandemic (Bellaby and Sankey, 2020; Baré et al., 2021) these ‘third space’ roles (Whitchurch 2008; 2013) are often not well understood (Mitchell et al., 2017; Altena et al., 2019). Such roles may experience challenges in credibility and visibility (Fyffe, 2018), relationship-building (Mitchell et al., 2017), and limitations for career progression (Slade et al., 2019). We provide a selection of our accounts related specifically to key tensions for third space TEL roles in building collaborative relationships and what these contradictions in practice can mean for productivity, morale, wellbeing, career progression and identity formation.
Our autoethnographic process has uncovered connections between professional identity, professional relationships and organisational context that provide insight into tensions for third space productivity and morale. We propose a tentative framework to explain the relationships of these connections, which may support those in third space TEL roles and their managers in making sense of their identities. By discussing our own journeys, not only can we begin to uncover tensions more fully, but we also uncover viable solutions to the way progression pathways, organisational structures and relationships across teams are conceived and leveraged within and across the sector.
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