Risk for professional learning when the academic community is forced online?

Abstract

Taking a practice perspective, this article explores how built spaces within the university can impact on, and enable, practices of everyday professional learning amongst university educators. The discussion draws on analysis, informed by the theory of practice architectures, of interviews with six academics at a Swedish university. Three main themes emerged in the analysis as significant for the enablement of educators’ professional learning practices within the physical university: spontaneity, authentic relationships, and embodied interactions. Because the interviews were conducted during the coronavirus pandemic, when most academics were required to work remotely, the analysis offers a comparison between affordances of certain built spaces for professional learning compared to online spaces. We consider what opportunities for professional learning might be missed if the academic community continues to be separated from campus.