In this paper, I draw attention to a lively and accessible way of helping academics to make sense of their practice as teachers. First, I define "collaborative close reading" and "teaching texts". Then I invite the reader to eavesdrop on three (lightly fictionalised) reading sessions. Finally, I suggest some guidelines for…

This article is based upon a belief that the ways in which we engage with knowledge in higher education is linked directly to the possibilities for greater social justice. I explore the importance of students being able to engage with disciplinary knowledge that is as rich, lively and vibrant as that which academics hopefully encounter within…

In this article, the author discusses how universities and the academics who work in them understand the relationship between teaching and research. In several countries, acknowledgement of the need to link teaching and research has led to the development of institutional strategies to achieve this goal. In South Africa, the linking of teaching…

In writing these reflections, the author is not seeking to apportion blame nor absolution about life choices that less than 1% of the population gets to make and lives to regret. In some ways, this piece is a rearview mirror projection of a life that took a very different turn to that which the author expected when he embarked on a doctoral…

Considerable resources and intellectual attention have focused on seeking to raise the status of teaching in higher education over the last two decades. Initiatives at an institutional level have included the funding of pedagogic research, teaching awards and the creation of teaching professorships. In a broader context, the scholarship of…

Virtual world technology is now being incorporated into various higher education programs, often with enthusiastic claims about the improvement of students' abilities to experience learning problems and tasks in computer-mediated virtual reality through the use of computer-generated personal agents or avatars. The interactivity of the avatars with…

This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and…

When the author writes, her intention is to inform readers and to invite debate and discussion (or at least individual reflection) that continues after the work has been read and put aside. As a scientist with an interest in education, the author now feels able to submit some writings to a non-science educational journal, such as "Teaching in…

This essay aims to provide a critical overview of the main themes to emerge from the Higher Education Close Up 5 conference held at Lancaster University in July 2010. The conference explored the relationship between theory and method in higher education (HE) research. This essay focuses upon four themes that developed from the proceedings. I begin…

Teachers in American study-abroad programs usually receive little, if any, training before the trip, because "teaching is teaching". The cultural differences between Chinese and American university classrooms, however, affect the students' ability to learn and the teacher's ability to teach in profound ways. Foreign teachers in China require at…

This article talks about a meeting on "Higher Education in Recessionary Times" on March 24, 2010, which was hosted by the Society for Higher Education Research Policy Network. Although the meeting did take place in the context of an expected General Election, and on budget day, there was a general sense on the day that whoever won the Election (or…

This paper presents a philosophical approach to undergraduate curricula. The approach, informed by research, has been conceptualised as "socially critical vocationalism" (SCV). SCV is neither training nor pure traditional academic provision but an approach to curriculum that is academically defensible, practically relevant and socially responsive…

Exploring postgraduate supervision practices with supervisors is a complex and contested endeavour. The growing body of literature on approaches to working with supervisors attests to this. Unlike some areas of higher education research, studies of supervision span theoretical spectrums from liberal approaches (e.g. Ballard and Clanchy 1991; Bruce…

Tony Harland's piece raises some challenging issues for "people who study higher education" and, in particular, for those who read and write for "Teaching in Higher Education". He finds himself questioning the identity of this community of readers and writers: their disciplinary origins; their field of enquiry and of the journal itself; the…

In this article, the author offers a personal view on the meaning of "teaching excellence" in higher education which makes connections with the particular historical moment people are living through--which has been variously described as "post-traditional", "postmodern", or "reflexive modernity". The author feels some urgency in giving his views…