Collaborative partnerships to facilitate change in higher education

Abstract

With the democratisation of education changes in student bodies at Higher Education institutions have put new demands on subject specialists’ teaching practices. This article illustrates how collaborative partnerships between subject specialists and academic developers enhance teaching, learning and assessment in the subject area. In this qualitative study, data were collected from electronic questionnaires and group interviews. The findings indicate that subject specialists considered the discussions with academic developers as crucial for changing their teaching focus and enhancing the accessibility of their subjects to the students. This article’s significance is that it provides an example of successful collaboration and indicates the willingness of subject specialists to be involved in partnerships that lead to them embracing the value of pedagogic knowledge in the teaching profession. It is recommended that institutions acknowledge that pedagogic knowledge on its own has little value unless it is integrated into discipline-specific subject knowledge and that they investigate ways in which to promote successful collaboration.