Welcome to T-FΨN
Logo designed by Carly McGregor, PhD student at Cardiff University
What is T-FΨN?
T-FΨN (Teaching-Focused University Network) is a collaborative network of academics on teaching-focused pathways in Psychology and related disciplines. We aim to create a community of pedagogical practice, CPD, and partnership across providers. We intend to enhance the profile of Teaching and Scholarship (T&S) academics, by facilitating collaborative pedagogical research between members in order to solve issues in Higher Education from a psychological perspective.
Why T-FΨN?
Increasingly, academic job positions that centre on Teaching and Scholarship (T&S), as opposed to Teaching and Research (T&R) are being prioritised in Higher Education. T&S pathways in academia typically involve a higher workload allocation of teaching, more emphasis on student support and pastoral roles, and an expectation to produce pedagogical scholarship outputs.
However, currently, across the UK, there is a lack of professional space for guidance for academic staff who wish to progress careers on T&S promotion pathways. The criteria for success on T&S pathways is unclear and varies considerably by institution. Further, despite an emphasis on pedagogical research outputs as a marker of T&S success, there is a lack of support and guidance to help colleagues engage with this form of scholarship. This means that, currently, the pedagogical potential of teaching and scholarship focused academic careers is being overlooked.
Specifically, there is an opportunity for the value of T&S academic contracts to be developed in order to directly improve the student experience, bolster collaboration and partnership, and advocate for pedagogical research. Indeed, psychologists and those in allied disciplines are particularly well placed to be T&S scholars, given the relevance of psychological research methods to pedagogical questions.
How can I contribute to T-FΨN?
If you are interested in becoming involved with T-FΨN, please sign up to the JISC-mail mailing list.
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=T-FUN&A=1
If you have any pedagogical research, ideas for networking sessions, or other ideas you would like to disseminate, you can email the organisers – Katy Burgess (burgesskv@cardiff.ac.uk) or Louise Taylor (louise.e.taylor@brookes.ac.uk) to discuss options.