Leadership for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Understanding Bridges and Gaps in Practice

The gap between the practice of individual academics based on the ideal of the SoTL—improving student learning—and the institutional infrastructure and leadership to support that work is an ongoing challenge to the development of the field (Hutchings, Huber, & Ciccone, 2011; Poole, Taylor, & Thompson, 2007; Simmons, forthcoming). To better understand how individuals in diverse roles contribute to the development of the SoTL in the context of their institutional cultures, this study examined how faculty, educational developers (EDs), and administrators enact SoTL leadership. A grounded theory approach (Leedy & Ormrod, 2001) guided the development of a survey that used closed and open-ended questions to invite respondents to share their personal conceptions and lived experiences of the SoTL. Drawing on the responses received (n=75), we identified ways faculty, educational developers, and administrators construe their SoTL leadership roles and how they can fulfill a vital role in facilitating leadership across and beyond their institutions to create critical social networks for SoTL work (Mårtensson, Roxå, & Olsson, 2012; Williams et al., 2013) and contribute to institutional cultures that support and value that work. The results reveal how gaps between the work of individual scholars and the cultures of their academic communities are being bridged through diverse leadership roles that cross multiple levels in their institutions and identify some of the gaps that remain.