Charting the future of educational development and Centers for Teaching and Learning. Over the past two decades, educational development has become central to how colleges and universities pursue teaching excellence, student success, and institutional change. In Educational Development in an Age of Change, Mary C. Wright, Tracie Marcella Addy, Bret Eynon, and Jaclyn Rivard present the most comprehensive survey of US educational developers to date, tracing how the field has evolved and where it is headed next. Based on responses from 550 educational developers and senior leaders across a wide range of institutional types-including community colleges and Minority-Serving Institutions-the book revisits and extends landmark national studies from 2006 and 2016. Tracking change over time, the authors examine who educational developers are, how centers for teaching and learning are structured and resourced, what initiatives they prioritize, and how they assess their impact. They give particular attention to strategic vision and theories of change: How do educational developers understand their role in advancing student learning? How do they navigate political pressures, shifting priorities around diversity and equity, the rise of generative AI, and ongoing questions about the value of higher education? Keeping issues of systemic inequity clearly in mind, they ask: Where are centers flourishing, where do gaps persist, and how can campus and system leaders better support these important resources? Combining longitudinal data with analysis of emerging trends, the book documents both continuity and transformation in the profession. It identifies signature programs, growing areas of emphasis such as community building and peer review, and the organizational conditions that enable educational development to influence campus-wide change. Essential reading for center directors, educational developers, senior academic leaders, and scholars of higher education, this book offers a detailed map of a profession that now plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of colleges and universities.
Mary C. Wright is a professor in the Division of Teaching and Learning in the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education & Students) portfolio at the University of Sydney, Australia. Previously, she served as the associate provost for teaching and learning, the executive director of the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, and a research professor at Brown University. A former president of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, she is the author of Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape in Higher Education and Always at Odds? Creating Alignment Between Faculty and Administrative Values and a coeditor of the International Journal for Academic Development. Tracie Marcella Addy is the founding director of the Institute for Teaching, Innovation, and Inclusive Pedagogy and an affiliate faculty member in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She is a coauthor of What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching and Enhancing Inclusive Instruction: Student Perspectives and Practical Approaches for Advancing Equity in Higher Education. The retired Associate Provost of LaGuardia Community College (CUNY), Bret Eynon serves as a Georgetown University Senior Fellow for Climate Leadership in Higher Education. He is a coauthor of The New Learning Compact: A Framework for Professional Learning and Educational Change; Open and Integrative: Designing Liberal Education for the New Digital Ecosystem; and Teaching, Learning, Equity and Change: Realizing the Promise of Professional Learning. Jaclyn Rivard is an assistant professor of higher education administration at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is a coauthor of Faculty Development in the Age of Evidence: Current Practices, Future Imperatives.
Acknowledgments Foreword, by Mary Deane Sorcinelli and Ann E. Austin Introduction 1. Who are we? 2. What guides our work? 3. What are our theories of change? 4. What initiatives do we focus on? 5. What tactics do we use? 6. How do we organize our work? 7. How is educational development valued? Evaluation, impact, and institutional support for educational development Conclusion: Evaluation, impact, and institutional support for educational development Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 References
Charting the future of educational development and Centers for Teaching and Learning.
