Concepts of Change: Enhancing the Practice of Academic Staff Development in Higher Education

Achieving change at any level of educational activity is not easy. In terms of teaching practice, developing a positive capacity for continuous improvement may involve deep change with the potential to threaten the core values and personal belief systems of staff and the students whom they teach. Recent theorising and discussion concerning conceptions of teaching and learning is an acknowledgement that the task of achieving change and the role of change supporters is not just a pragmatic one. This paper considers some of the issues faced by academic staff developers attempting to transform teaching practice. The author draws upon late twentieth century philosophy and extensive theorising about educational and organisational change with a view to suggesting this literature's potential to support the work of change supporters, such as academic staff developers.