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Forming, Recruiting and Managing the Academic Profession pp 271–295Cite as

Perspectives on Professional Development: The Voice of Irish Academics

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Abstract

A comprehensive review of global trends prepared for UNESCO drew attention to the ‘discouraging environment’ for the academic profession worldwide as increased student numbers and constrained budgets were accompanied by greater bureaucratization and demands for accountability (Altbach et al., Trends in global higher education: tracking an academic revolution. Boston College Centre for International Higher Education, Boston, 2009). For some time, analyses of the role of the ‘steering’ state have pointed to shifts in the status and levels of autonomy of many professions. In relation to higher education, international projects such as CAP and EURAC provide rich comparative data on the perceptions of academic staff of a range of changes taking place in their roles and positions. While it remains difficult to assess the impact which these trends may have on the quality of teaching in higher education, one indirect approach is to investigate the opportunities which academics have for, and their level of interest in, continuing professional development aimed at supporting and further enhancing their teaching. In this chapter we explore the findings from a large scale empirical study of the professional development experiences and interests of academic staff from eight higher education institutions in Ireland. We provide an insight into the highest and lowest ranking areas of interest for professional development and discuss the changing nature of student approaches to learning as perceived by respondents.

The quality of teaching is not a quality of a teacher but of a relationship; aspects of which are defined by the character, talents, and motivations of the learner. Teaching is not an action but a transaction; not an outcome but a process; not a performance, but an emotional and intellectual connection between teacher and learner.

(Trow 1994, reprinted 2010, p. 282)

The Voices of Irish Academic Staff survey was supported by the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) under the Enhancement of Learning Strand of the DRHEA (Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance). The authors would like to express their appreciation to academic staff and the participating institutions for their engagement with the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Higher Education Research Centre, Office of the Vice-President Academic Affairs, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Maria Slowey & Ekaterina Kozina

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  1. Maria Slowey
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  2. Ekaterina Kozina
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Correspondence to Maria Slowey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. INCHER -Kassel, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany

    Ulrich Teichler

  2. Graduate School of Education and HD, George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    William K. Cummings

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Slowey, M., Kozina, E. (2015). Perspectives on Professional Development: The Voice of Irish Academics. In: Teichler, U., Cummings, W. (eds) Forming, Recruiting and Managing the Academic Profession. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16080-1_15

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