Academic Development work

Over the years, I have been fortunate to work with committed educators across many institutions. Although the focus is usually on the redesign of the curriculum and/or improving pedagogy, we invariably have to start by understanding context and all the associated factors. This is where my personal research into complex engineering problem-solving has proved invaluable. I believe in a complex systems approach - there are 'parts' with their individual attributes/properties which occur (or are set) in relation to other 'parts' within the whole. Each part (and its relation to others) needs to be interrogated and understood, as well as the multiple possible relationships, before being able to view the 'whole'. 'Seeing' the whole as greater than the sum of its parts is the starting point to enable responsive curriculum and pedagogic design.

Very often, the simple act of providing tools to 'see parts and wholes' is the heart of my contribution. I draw on numerous theoretical and analytical tools, ranging from those within the Sociology of Education (such as Bernstein's Knowledge Structures, Maton's Legitimation Code Theory dimensions, Six Sigma DMAIC/DMAVD, to name a few).

As an Academic Development and Curriculum specialist, I have been privileged to collaborate on several international projects. These collaborations have enabled South African and European collaborators to develop a more informed perspective on each others' contexts and needs, leading to effective practice-sharing initiatives.

Academic Development, for me, is not only an opportunity to lead or guide others. It is also a synergistic and organic form of community engagement. Mlamuli Hlatshwayo (et al) talk of Ubuntu Currere "an emancipatory alternative" to curricula,  to be "thought of as an active conceptual tool that is dialectical, inclusive, and democratic...enabling varied voices such as those from students, lecturers, policy makers, communtiy stakeholders, industry, and others" . I see my role in the engineering education space as one of enabling dialogue between the varied voices, and engagement with self, other and knowledge such that we can collectively contribute to society.

Academic Development: Sites of Dialectical Engagement

National Engineering Education capacity building

I am privileged to be able to play a role nationally, and internationally, in engineering education capacity building. As part of the South African Society for Engineering Education (SASEE) leadership, I represent the organisation on the TSP Innovative Engineering Curriculum Project run by A/Prof Lelanie Smith (UP) and supported by Prof John Mitchell (UCL), along with a core team of engineering educators from around South Africa. This role entails collaborative design and facilitation of holistic engineering staff development opportunities, as well as national and international community-of-practice building. We have run multiple national workshops since 2021, and hope to enable organic change from the ground upward, as well as garner support from management structures.

Academic Development Leadership at Stellenbosch University

I have just celebrated my 10th year as the engineering faculty Teaching & Learning Advisor at Stellenbosch University. I have managed to develop and sustain a Community of Practice (CoP) approach to programme renewal that includes inter-departmental and inter-faculty collaboration, and is supported by the permission [SEEPIE Ethics clearance] to engage in theory-informed Engineering Education Research activities, by way of reviewing student engagement, performance and feedback, as well as focus group discussions with students and staff so as to collaboratively improve our student learning experience.  This CoP is called the REEP group: Recommended Engineering Education Practices. The name came about when quality assurance initiatives globally were using terms like 'best' practices. We felt that for a context-specific and responsive approach, we could not commit to anything more than 'recommendations'. Our CoP work is showcased on an independent platform which I set up, and which also includes a reflect narrative for our National University Teaching Awards 2025 submission: https://sites.google.com/view/su-engineering-nuta-2025/reflective-narrative

Reflection on my faculty AD leadership:

Being the dedicated, faculty-appointed Teaching & Learning advisor in Engineering at Stellenbosch University has made a significant contextual difference. There is a wealth of literature on STEM academic resistance to AD practitioners, who generally hail from the social sciences (Winberg et al., 2019). In the context of both the institutional and faculty mission to transform our practices, enable a ‘transformative student experience’ and ‘networked and collaborative teaching and learning’ (SU, 2018), the faculty has increasingly embraced and supported what I (as T&L advisor) do, one ‘student’ at a time. I am a firm believer in the concept of organic solidarity (Durkheim, 2010), where societies (or indeed, Communities-of-Practice) evolve based on mutual need, as opposed to primarily mechanical solidarity, which is imposed.  Each staff member with whom I work (both within and beyond the official professional development (PREDAC) programme) has a particular orientation to his/her role and initially often uninterrogated views on teaching and learning. I attempt to identify how I need to work with each staff member, based on his/her experience, scope, context and needs. The overwhelming need in the faculty has been to improve strategies linking theory to practice. The Semantic Wave (Maton, 2014) has been an obvious SOTL instrument to explore, since it can demonstrate the teaching and learning journey between abstract concepts and concrete contexts of application. Early collaboration with staff members like Robbie Pott, Margreth Tadie, Deborah Blaine and their colleagues planted the seed for the uptake of a SOTL-based approach (cognitive intention) to what we do in the faculty. The adoption of the various instruments, and the opportunities for T&L research and innovation projects has seen the organic development of a community of practice (CoP) that gave birth to the formal Recommended Engineering Education Practices (REEP) initiative, as well as a number of collaborative publications in top international journals. Deborah Blaine and I presented our CoP approach at the international 2021 WEEF-GEDC conference. All our case studies and publications are now proudly shared on our REEP website, which I established to enable staff to showcase their practices. 

Not every staff member has the same priorities. There are many staff who feel they just need classroom management and communication strategies (systemic interventions), for example. Yet other staff often reveal a lack confidence or are overwhelmed (affective needs). Our organic REEP community has enabled each of us to find ourselves, celebrate our strengths, tackle our challenges and develop a sense of belonging that lies beyond the technicist and technical aspects of HE.   Our key challenges, however, lie in having enough time to engage in this meaningful, voluntary work and the perception of 'reward': Although we (SU) were recently lauded as one of the top 12 institutions globally for our approach to rewarding teaching excellence, STEM faculties and leadership are not doing enough to go beyond paying lip service to the so-called ‘transformative learning experience’ and the value of teaching (over or alongside research). Our journey ahead is intended to enable meaningful engagement with the spirit of "transformative learning" and holistic Graduate Attributes, with a specific focus on diversity, inclusivity and sustainability, so as to empower our students and graduates to legitimately participate in their complex and beautiful worlds!