Strategic Approaches to SoEL Inquiry Within and Across Disciplines: Twenty-year Impact of an International Faculty Development Program in Diverse University Contexts

Abstract

Educational leaders on university campuses around the world are increasingly required to account for the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of their undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The S Scholarship of Educational Leadership (SoEL) in higher education is a distinctive form of strategic inquiry for educational leaders with an explicit transformational agenda of educational practices within and across the disciplines in diverse university contexts. This paper examines complex institutional challenges and strategic approaches to SoEL inquiry. In an international faculty development context, data suggests that educational leaders from a variety of disciplines face significant challenges when undertaking SoEL inquiry. Strategic institutional supports and customised professional development are key to facilitating SoEL inquiry in higher education. Further, SoEL is inherently situated, socially mediated, and responsive to the professional learning needs and circumstances of educational leaders within and across the disciplines in diverse university contexts.