Professional learning for teaching at a research-intensive university: The need for a ‘care-full’ environment

Abstract

The participation of academics in professional learning (PL) opportunities for teaching plays an important role in promoting the desired outcomes of teaching and learning in higher education (HE). If university teachers pursuing a career in academia however perceive the environment as non-appreciative and non-supportive, in other words, "care-less" to such endeavours, they could become demoralised as a result of human and emotional responses. The purpose of the reported research was to explore the influence of their environment on the decision-making of academics to participate in PL opportunities at one research-intensive university. It shows what impact the careless treatment of teachers may have on their decisions to learn to teach. Findings indicate that academics do not perceive the existing institutional environment as "care-full" (Milligan and Wiles 2010) towards teaching or university teachers. Carving out a teaching career in a careless environment seems to have a negative influence on academics' decision-making for PL for teaching. One implication of these findings is that university management should realise that a care-full environment, certainly at research-intensive institutions, is essential for PL, for individual academics and subsequently for students and society, to prosper.