A Critical Provocation of the Trajectory of Academic Development: Towards a Reflexive Generative Methodology

This special issue is linked to the 21st anniversary (2004-2025) of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA). HELTASA is a professional association for educators and other significant stakeholders in the Higher Education sector. Its membership is drawn mainly from staff in public and private higher education institutions, but it seeks to work collaboratively with policy-makers, statutory bodies and other professional associations interested in higher education. HELTASA was established in 2004, broadening the previous focus of earlier associations that focused on the academic development movement.

This special issue provides an opportunity to take stock of the HELTASA’s history (but also the broader context of the trajectory of academic development in South Africa) by reflecting on key achievements, identifying tensions and contradictions, and re-imagining the future of the field of Academic Development. The issue foregrounds collective reflexivity among academic developers whose professional identities and practices have been shaped through sustained engagement within their institutions and with HELTASA over time. We proceed from the premise that the strengthening and sustainability of academic development require continuous engagement with the past as a resource for identifying blind spots and challenging dominant practices, while remaining oriented towards future possibilities. Accordingly, this special issue adopts a practical evaluative stance, situating past practices and future projects within the contingencies of the present.

We invite submissions for consideration in a special issue of Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTal), a peer-reviewed journal that publishes scholarship making substantive contributions to learning and teaching in higher education.

CriSTal provides a rigorous and critical forum for authors to describe, theorise, and reflect on teaching and learning practices, with particular attention to work situated in, or relevant to, the South African higher education context.