Developing critical questions from faculty tensions: An approach to collegiality in course teams

Julia Savage
Deakin University, Australia
Vikki Pollard
Independent scholar, Australia

The authors of this paper are academic developers in an Australian university. In this paper, we discuss the outcomes of a small pilot study about value tensions; completed to inform a larger research project about the possibilities of making collaborative collegiality an explicit aim of a curriculum review. After interviewing four course leaders, we were interested in the highly specific nature of the course leaders' challenges. Could a critical enquiry schema based on each course leader's emerging value tensions provide a scaffold for scholarly, critical discourse? Making tensions explicit in teaching and learning development work in university course teams may begin a process of situated, critical questioning and discourse on the curriculum itself. We acknowledge this work can, at times, elicit a form of difficult discourse.
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Authors: Julia Savage is a lecturer in professional learning within a central unit at Deakin Learning Futures, Deakin University, Melbourne. Her particular interests are the scholarship of learning and teaching, and, supporting the work of sessional staff. Email: julia.savage@deakin.edu.au Vikki Pollard is an independent scholar working in critical pedagogy, work integrated learning and reflective practice. Email: vaki.pollard@gmail.com Please cite as: Savage, J. & Pollard, V. (2018). Developing critical questions from faculty tensions: An approach to collegiality in course teams. Issues in Educational Research, 28(2), 470-486. http://www.iier.org.au/iier28/savage.pdf