Towards a conceptual framework of professional development: a phenomenographic study of academics’ mindsets in a business school

Abstract

Business education has had limited discussion on professional development for academics. Given the increasing focus on the quality of teaching and learning in higher education, we investigate how academics conceptualise professional development. This has important implications since one’s conceptions of a phenomenon can influence subsequent approaches. Few phenomenographic studies have investigated academics’ conceptions of professional development. Our study asked business academics a typical phenomenograhic question: what does professional learning and development mean to you? Our participants conceptualised it in four qualitatively different ways: continual growth mindset; student-centric mindset; knowledge-sharing mindset; and purpose-oriented mindset. We discuss the implications of these mindsets for designing professional development in higher education.