Developing the developers: Some ethical dilemmas in changing times |
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| Authors: | Geoff Isaacs |
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| Institution: | 1. The Teaching and Educational Development Institute , The University of Queensland g.isaacs@mailbox.uq.edu.au |
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| Abstract: | Abstract Universities in Australia, like those in many Western countries, currently are being pushed to find for themselves an increasing share of their own budgets and to consider themselves as service providers to students, their ‘customers’. These students, having paid fees, may well expect to get what they have paid for and, in current labour market conditions, that may amount to a degree rather than an education. That is, universities are now under‐funded and, frequently, far from being seen as educational institutions, are seen as businesses whose role is to provide adequate service at optimum price. By and large, educational development staff do not teach students so they do not contribute directly to the income of the enterprise. The position of such staff and the units in which they are located is thus increasingly coming under threat as ‘economies’ are sought by academic ‘managers’. One poignantly pointed issue, then, is the extent to which educational developers might appropriately change the style and substance of their activities to assist in the evolution of universities to embrace and perhaps to thrive in the new environment. Would this amount to collusion or to co‐operation? Developers have, in the past, often attempted to develop themselves by embracing the model of reflective practice and implementing it both while carrying out their work (a kind of action learning) and at conferences and in journals and books of various kinds. However developers, and their clients (actual and potential), are under increasing pressure and for many survival, not thriving, may be the main issue. The issue for developers may well be the identity of their clients ‐ the university; its management; its teaching staff; its students (the university's supposed ‘customers'). In this paper I focus on the ethical dilemmas which may arise when educational developers try to develop themselves to serve various possible clients. |
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