By Neil Gordon, Lesley Morrell, Dom Henri and Catherine Lillie, University of Hull.
Introduction
Across higher education, there have been various attempts to recognise the diversity of academic roles. In the mid 2000’s, this led to the national pay framework and pathways for teaching and research, teaching and scholarship, and research. Whilst these formal career pathways for teaching-and-research, teaching-only, and research-only staff, were intended to support multiple routes through academia, in practice, these pathways have tended to result in fragmentation rather than flexibility.
Many institutions continue to operate within structural silos, where teaching, research, and educational scholarship seem unevenly valued. This has created challenges for progression, recognition, and identity— particularly for education-focused staff.
At the University of Hull, colleagues have been working to address these challenges through a combination of institutional leadership and grassroots initiatives, centred on the development of communities of practice. These approaches aim to build a more collaborative, inclusive, and sustainable academic culture.
Sector Challenges in Recognising Educational Scholarship
Across the UK sector, the divide between traditional disciplinary research and educational scholarship continues to influence academic progression and recognition. While policy frameworks have created distinct career routes, they have not fully achieved parity of esteem across them.
In many cases:
- Education-focused staff face restricted access to professional development and research support. Which has led to the formation of the UK SoTL Alliance, designed to address sector-wide inconsistency in expectations of and support for scholarship-engaged academics (UK SoTL Alliance: Posts | LinkedIn).
- Institutional systems can reinforce separation between teaching and research activities, which contradicts a core tenet of the university system – that research enhances education.
- The Research Excellence Framework (REF) was introduced, and continues to create, variability in eligibility and inclusion. With widespread inconsistency and uncertainty surrounding the role of SoTL in REF returns (https://hidden-ref.org/details-of-submission-categories/#sotl).
Opportunities for visibility, mentoring, and progression remain uneven and rarely tied to centrally coordinated initiatives. These structural issues contribute to a broader cultural challenge. Educational scholarship is often perceived as secondary to disciplinary research, despite its vital importance in enhancing student experience and institutional performance and being the basis for most of the sectors actual funding.
The impact extends beyond career progression. A lack of recognition and clarity around expectations can negatively affect staff wellbeing and sense of belonging, highlighting the need for more coherent and inclusive approaches to academic identity.
Hull’s Response
The University of Hull has responded to these challenges through a set of interconnected institutional and local initiatives designed to support educational scholarship and reduce fragmentation. A central element of this response is the development of communities of practice, which bring together educators across disciplines and career stages. These communities aim to:
- Foster collaboration and mentoring relationships
- Support the development of pedagogic research and practice
- Create a shared sense of academic identity
Alongside this, Hull has demonstrated a commitment to wellbeing, equity, and recognition, by ensuring that education-focused staff have meaningful opportunities for progression. Institutional frameworks have been updated to clarify expectations around scholarly activity, with promotion criteria increasingly recognising contributions to pedagogy, curriculum innovation, and student learning.
Networks such as the Hull University Pedagogy and Scholarship (HUPS ) group play a key role in facilitating cross-disciplinary dialogue, enabling colleagues to engage with evidence-informed teaching and curriculum enhancement. These have developed from related activities and communities that the authors have been involved with, such as the Biology Education Research Group (BERG), Hull STEM Education Research Group, the Undergraduate Mathematics Teaching Conference (UMTC Home Page), and more recently the Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference – Making Connections, Innovating and Sharing Pedagogy and related Horizons in STEM Higher Education Network – – supporting scholarship in STEM pedagogy.
Building Communities of Practice
Collaborative networks have been central to strengthening educational scholarship at Hull. Initiatives such as HUPS provide a structure for bringing together academic and professional service colleagues with a shared interest in teaching and learning. These networks are organised through smaller, theme-based groups that focus on specific areas of practice. Activities include:
- Professional development sessions
- Scholarship events and seminars
- Mentoring and support for early-career academics
- Opportunities to share and develop research ideas
Through these activities, communities of practice help to build confidence and capability among staff, supporting them in developing their pedagogic identities and engaging in scholarly work.
Importantly, they also create opportunities for connection—reducing the sense of isolation often experienced by those working on educational initiatives within traditionally research-dominated environments.
Institutional Leadership and Recognition
Institutional leadership has been critical in embedding these developments within wider academic culture. At Hull, progress has been made in **aligning promotion frameworks and recognition systems** with the realities of educational scholarship.
This includes:
- Clarifying how scholarship is defined within academic roles
- Supporting staff in evidencing impact through teaching and learning activities
- Promoting parity of esteem between educational scholarship and disciplinary research
These changes help ensure that communities of practice are not isolated initiatives, but are connected to formal structures that support long-term career development and recognition.
A Disciplinary Example: The Computer Science Education Group http://tinyurl.com/hull-cs-ped
Within this institutional context, the Computer Science Education Group provides an example of how communities of practice can be developed at a disciplinary level.
The group was established to:
- Provide a supportive community focused on computing pedagogy
- Build visibility and capacity for educational scholarship and research, linking with potential support for computer science research itself and potential REF support Computer Science for Pedagogy, Engagement & Development (CS-PED)
- Foster collaboration through workshops, reading groups, and discussions
- Contribute to both institutional priorities and national conversations in computing education
By identifying colleagues already engaged in pedagogic work and creating structures for collaboration, the group has developed a strong and coherent scholarly community.
The Computer Science Education Group supports a range of activities designed to enhance both teaching practice and scholarly engagement. These include:
- Research discussions and writing groups
- Collaborative workshops and project development
- Engagement with external organisations and networks
- Dissemination of pedagogic research
Key areas of focus include:
- Curriculum development and evaluation
- Student engagement and learning design
- The use of computing technologies in education
- Gamification and innovative teaching approaches
Through this work, the group contributes both to local teaching enhancement and to wider sector discussions on computing education.
Impact on Academic Culture and Staff Development
These initiatives have had a significant impact on staff development and academic culture at Hull. Key outcomes include:
- Clearer and more supportive pathways for developing educational scholarship
- Increased confidence in pursuing research, funding, and promotion
- Greater collaboration and shared pedagogic inquiry
Reflections
Emerging findings from funded work at Hull highlight the importance of community and support in enabling educational scholarship. For many staff, a lack of integration into research culture can feel like exclusion from the university itself. Communities such as HUPS provide an important counterbalance offering:
- A sense of belonging
- Access to support and mentorship
- Opportunities to develop confidence and capability
- A collective voice to advocate for change
The experience at Hull demonstrates how communities of practice can act as a bridge between institutional strategy and academic practice. By connecting colleagues, supporting development, and aligning with frameworks for recognition, they help create a more inclusive and collaborative academic culture.
However, challenges remain. Time constraints, limited resources, and uncertainty around expectations continue to shape staff engagement with scholarship. Moreover, REF inclusion policies and the implementation of promotions criteria can act to strengthen the silos separation, rather than fostering inclusion.
Moving from silos to synergy requires both institutional commitment and grassroots engagement. When these come together, they enable educational scholarship to flourish—benefiting staff, students, and the wider academic community alike.
