Overview

This event offers a valuable opportunity for academics engaged in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to gain deeper insights into the evolving expectations and potential challenges associated with career progression in this field. As SoTL continues to grow in importance within higher education, understanding how it is evaluated and recognised in academic promotion pathways becomes increasingly crucial.

The session will explore common questions and concerns around how teaching-focused academics are perceived by promotion panels, what evidence is considered impactful, and how to effectively document and present contributions to teaching and learning, scholarship research and academic leadership.

Participants will also hear from experienced academics who have successfully navigated the promotion process with a SoTL portfolio, offering real-world perspectives and advice. Whether you are at the beginning of your SoTL journey or preparing for the next stage in your academic career, this event aims to support your professional development and strategic planning.

Schedule

Speaker bios

Xianghan (Christine) O’Dea is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Management and Technology Education at King's Business School, King's College London. She is also Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy. Her research focuses on AI in education (AIEd), with a particular focus on Generative AI and AI literacy; digital transformation and digital education. She has published her research in high-impact journals, such as Studies in Higher Education, British Journal of Educational Technology, and Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Christine has recently published a book with Emerald (2024), titled “Effective Practices in AI Literacy Education: Case Studies and Reflections”. Another book she co-edited, titled “From AI Literacy to Generative AI Literacy: Theory, Policy and Practice” (Springer) will be published in 2025. Currently Christine is Co-Editor-in-Chief of AI in Education (An Emerald Open Access Journal), and Academic Chair in the Knowledge Hub on Artificial Intelligence at Circle U (European University Alliance). 

Julian Stern is Professor of Education and Religion at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, Director of WRERU: the World Religions and Education Research Unit (@WRERU-Lincoln), General Secretary of ISREV: the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values (@ISREV1978 #ISREV), President of the International Society for Research on Solitude, and Editor of the British Journal of Religious Education.  Julian is widely published, with recent books including Defending the Value of Education as a Public Good: Philosophical Dialogues on Education and the State (2024, edited with Katarzyna Wrońska), The Art, Literature and Music of Solitude (2024), Middle Leadership in Education: Care, Carefulness and Being ‘Caute’ in the Middle (2022), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Solitude, Silence and Loneliness (edited with Christopher A Sink, Małgorzata Wałejko and Wong Ping Ho, 2022), and A Philosophy of Schooling: Care and Curiosity in Community (2018).  He has worked and published with Jean McNiff on practitioner research in higher education.

Janet Orchard is Associate Professor in Philosophy and Religion in Teacher Education at the School of Education, University of Bristol where she has been the Director of Postgraduate Research since 2020. As a former school teacher and leader herself and teacher educator who has gone on to lead Professional Doctorates in the UK and Hong Kong she takes a particular personal interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning  in Higher Education contexts as well as schools. Her particular research interests include: philosophical reflection on teacher education, ethical deliberation and teaching, religious education and its pedagogy and values education/moral education in schooling. She is co-editor of Professional Reflection and serves on the editorial boards of two other journals.