HE institutions across SA have been invited to take part in a national research project that seeks to map the current nature and scope of the Academic Development field. The National Academic Development Landscape (NADL) research project forms part of a project on Enhancing the field of AD, funded through the University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP). These projects are linked to the National Framework for Enhancing Academics as Teachers (DHET, 2018), which established the need to address a number of key issues:
- national patterns of student success
- existing fragmented staff capacity building initiatives
- transformation
- change agency
- perceptions of value
- development of AD
Although the framework is intended to “coordinate and improve collaboration amongst those working with the development of academics as educators” (Behari-Leak, 2019), it is clear that definitions of and approaches to AD work differ significantly in different contexts. The NADL project is intended to provide a theoretically- and empirically-informed basis from which to coordinate strategies for collaboration and national capacity-building policy and planning.
The project team wishes to enable a shared understanding of the AD field in SA HE by way of an online survey and follow-up regional focus-group discussions for key institutional AD stakeholders during 2022.
We would like to invite all AD leaders and practitioners involved in the professional development of academic staff to complete our survey.
Project Information: National Academic Development Landscape (NADL) research project [Ethics #2022-5718-6865]
Regards on behalf of the research team:
- Prof Jo-Anne Vorster (Rhodes University)
- Dr Xena Cupido (Cape Peninsula University of Technology)
- Dr Kibbie Naidoo (University of Johannesburg)
- Ms Nalini Chitanand (Durban University of Technology)
- Prof Karin Wolff (Independent Researcher)
- Ms Lauren van Breda (Research Assistant)
Please note that we are awaiting final institutional approval from: SMU, UNISA & UP. You should receive an invitation to participate when approval is received.
