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Title: Academic Staff development: Disruptions, Complexities, Change (Envisioning new Futures)

Editors: Nalini Chitanand and Shoba Rathilal – Durban University of Technology

The impetus for this book is the COVID-19 pandemic that has seen a centering of Academic Staff Development in higher education institutions, globally.

The purpose of this book is to contribute to the scholarship on Academic Staff Development in higher education, paying particular attention to the context of the Global South. We invite chapters that analyse and theorise these changes and lessons learned with a view to envision new future possibilities beyond the present, including our post-human futures. The emphasis is not a different form of the same but something new for academic staff development in and about higher education. Thus forcing us to explore further whether we need to reframe academic staff development for professional learning or engage in a radical rethink of the idea of academic staff development, itself.
Submissions should extend the debates and demonstrate critical reflexivity on how Academic Staff Development has been responding to crises. Implicit in these must be a critical appraisal of the roles, functions and purposes of academic staff development in light of the transformation (social, epistemic and environmental justice) imperatives of higher education.

We invite empirical or conceptual chapters that might address (but not limited to) one or more of the following themes:

  • The influence of context in the design and implementation of academic staff development
  • Knowledge-building and curriculum considerations for academic staff development
  • Pedagogical approaches of academic staff development
  • Policy implications regarding academic staff development
  • Leadership in/of academic staff development

Time Frame (28 September 2020 – 30 November 2021)

  • 28 September 2020: Announcement of Call for Chapters
  • 30 October 2020: Deadline for submission of abstracts
  • 30 November 2020: Final date for decision on abstracts
  • 30 April 2021: Final date for submission of manuscripts to editors
  • 30 May 2021: Submission of manuscripts to Publisher: African Sun Media
  • Jun – Oct 2021: Peer review, revisions, copy editing
  • 30 November 2021: Publication

Abstract Guidelines 

  • A succinct title of no more than 15 words
  • An abstract (minimum ± 600 words) which includes: the background and focus of the study, key questions the study aims to address, the importance of the study and contribution to knowledge of Academic Staff Development, the methodological approach and theoretical considerations and anticipated key findings or possible impact
  • Author/s name/s – if more than one author, indicate the corresponding author
  • Author/s institutional affiliation
  • Contact details – email address and telephone number

Submit your abstracts: 

Interested contributors are requested to submit their abstracts to the book editors Nalini Chitanand (nalinic@dut.ac.za) and Shoba Rathilal (shobar@dut.ac.za). Include in the Subject Line – Academic Staff development: Disruptions, Complexities, Change and the Name of the Corresponding author.

Author Guidelines 

  • Full author guidelines for chapters will be provided to authors of accepted abstracts.
  • Chapters should range between 7000 – 9000 words excluding references.
  • All chapters will undergo double blind peer review.