Resilience in Academic Development

This book explores the concept of resilience in higher education through the diverse perspective of academic development practices. It asks us to consider the complexity of the systems in which academic developers work, and the varied ways in which academic development practices can support, and build, resilience across these systems.

Higher education can be complex to navigate for students, academics and developers. Significant recent upheavals including reduced university funding, broadening student participation and the disruption from digital technologies, add to this complexity, amid global political and climate instability. Along with the recent disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, these issues challenge the ways in which we understand fairness, equity and opportunity in teaching and learning spaces, and across higher education more broadly. Ideas around how to support the resilience of higher education workers, educators and students are becoming more commonplace. This volume explores a range of perspectives on how we may view resilience in higher education, and the ways in which the work of academic developers can contribute to, and is situated within, resilient university systems.

This book was originally published as a special issue of International Journal for Academic Development.

Elisa K. Bone is a lecturer in Educational Futures at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, who has worked in a range of teaching and learning and academic development roles across Australia and the U.S. Her research interests include examining structures that enable sustained curriculum change, and in supporting teaching academics through disruption.

Cormac McGrath is an associate professor of education at the Department of Education and an educational developer at the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching at Stockholm University. McGrath’s main areas of work and research are academic development, educational leadership, and technology mediated learning.

Tracy X. P. Zou is an assistant professor at the Department of Educational Administration and Policy in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on teaching and learning experiences in higher education. Her work has been funded by the University Grants Committee and Research Grants Council of HKSAR as well as the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia.

Kwong Nui Sim is an associate professor as well as a dean at ATMC, New Zealand. She is also an adjunct associate professor at the Central Queensland University, Australia. Her research emphasizes academic development, educational technology, and doctoral education. As an award-winning academic leader, she is committed to enhancing learning and teaching practices in the higher education domain.