Welcome to the WJETT blog
What is WJETT?
The WJETT blog or Warwick Journal of Education - Transforming Teaching blog is designed to encourage staff and students to disseminate good practice and to engage with their peers on academic cultural critique or areas of research that they find interesting. With the increased focus on ‘teachers as researchers’ in the sector, many qualified teachers are expected to publish the outcomes of any action research projects they undertake. The WJETT blog can be the first step on your journey towards publishing and enables you to experience publishing and reviewing in a friendly and supportive environment.
You will need to scroll down the page below the tags to see the posts.
The Rise of Third Space Professionals: Implications for Academic Practice
Back in March 2019 I attended a WIHEA seminar given by Dr Celia Whitchurch, Associate Professor in HE at University College London’s Institute of Education. Celia’s research focussed on academic and professional identities in higher education.
Celia considered the changing roles and identities of academic and professional staff in higher education. She shared results from two studies funded by the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, which involved administering interviews in HE institutions in Great Britain, America and Australia to staff who worked in less-well-defined roles.
It was interesting to note the different terminologies that are used to describe these individuals, with ‘third space professionals’ being the commonly accepted term within the UK. I have since undertaken my own literature review to investigate what other terms are being used within the sector (and there are lots of them, including: hybrid, multi-dimensional, intersectional, blended, unbounded, fluid, fragmentary or peripheral, to name but a few). There is also a variety of terminology in use for the ‘space’ that these individuals work within (or around in some cases). This is frequently referred to as ‘the third space’ but other terms in use include: transformational space; complex and differentiated space, borderland zone, plural environment or academic periphery.
Celia defined third space professionals as those ‘with identities drawn from both professional and academic domains’ and observed that third space professionals are often appointed on the basis of experience in broad academic areas such as student experience, curriculum design, technology enhanced learning or pedagogic research rather than in specific subject or research areas. The emphasis being on cross boundary (and this is a contested term) or cross disciplinary working. She added that these individuals are likely to have master’s level (or above) qualifications and are often active researchers contributing to the scholarship of teaching and learning despite not necessarily having being employed on ‘traditional’ academic contracts.
She further added that these individuals also represent an increasingly diverse workforce characterised by career development within and outside of the HE sector. Partnership working and the crossing of boundaries between what are traditionally seen as academic and professional roles are common characteristics of third space professionals. Finally Celia considered the implications of all of these factors for both third space professionals and the HE institutions they work in.
At the event Gwen Van-der-Velden Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Learning Experience) and Academic Director of WIHEA announced that a new Third Space Learning Circle has been created. As I have been interested in this topic for many years I was really pleased to be awarded co-chair of this learning circle with Sue Parr, Business Development Director (PEP) in WMG.
Further information about WIHEA is available here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/academyLink opens in a new window
Here is a copy (she has delivered several of these sessions at different institutions) of Celia's presentation given at Sheffield University:
Writing guidance
Can I write about anything in my blog post?
Yes pretty much. Academic cultural critique (Thomson and Mewburn, 2013) is always a good source of content for academic blogs. This can include (but is not limited to) comments and reflections on funding; higher education policy or academic life. You might also want to consider blogging about:
- Academic practice (Saper, 2006)
- Information and/or self-help advice
- Technical, teaching and careers advice
- Your research or practice
- How you’ve undertaken research
- The impact of research on your practice
- An area of research/practice that interests you
- Your teaching experiences/reflections
How long can my blog post be?
Each individual blog post should be no longer than 500 words. Long blocks of text are sometimes hard for readers to digest. Break up your content into shorter paragraphs, bullet points and lists whenever possible. Also include a list of keywords or tags as this makes it easier for Google to find your work.
Do I need to use citations?
No, this is a reflective piece so it does not need to include citations (but you obviously can include them if they are relevant).
Can I include links or images?
We would encourage you to include links to any articles that you have considered whilst writing your blog post. We also welcome the use of images (as long as you have permission to use them) as they can often help to illustrate a point and obviously will not be included in the word limit. Please remember this is a public site so if you want to include images of your students in your classes then you will need permission to do this.
What is the process for submitting a piece of work?
Your blog post should be emailed to A.Ball.1@warwick.ac.uk. Once the submission has been reviewed it will either be uploaded at the beginning of the next available week or sent back to you for editing if it requires amendments. You should then send the amended work to me once again and I will then upload it.