The contextual changes in teaching and learning that have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the need for an enhanced understanding of the intersection between the academic work of teaching and well-being. This chapter aims to explore how academics build and sustain their identities in digital spaces and what key conceptual solutions they hold to enable their own effective workplace learning. Semi-structured interviews with 11 academics of all ranks involving part- and full-timers working in a private university in the Republic of Cyprus were conducted. The findings reveal complexities and uncertainties facing academics in digital spaces, which led to their transformative learning, as the threshold concepts of their education philosophy were challenged. The chapter concludes by summarising suggestions for academics and institutions on how to support the development of academic digital competencies, ones that might be adopted in an attempt to create a more purposeful provision of ongoing workplace learning for academics in a post-pandemic era.
TopIntroduction
As higher education shifts towards commercialization (Winter, 2009), managerialism and economic rationalism (Hil, 2012), academic work seems to be under a strong pressure for change (Willson, 2018). Widely employed neoliberal principles often result in an increase in workloads and demands for external income, leading universities to expand online course offerings as one of the avenues to enrich student enrolments (Baltodano, 2012). The convergence of technology and the potential this created for universities to develop and manage social interactions between academics and students have accelerated the pace of academic life. These changes are occurring continuously as new technologies become available to transform teaching and learning (Lampe et al., 2011).
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was widespread acknowledgement of the benefits of e-learning, which included online and blended learning (Moore et al., 2010). Flexible access to learning resources through the use of technology (Garrison, 2016) and the affordance of connectivity and reach offered through the World Wide Web (Beal, 2021) have enriched possibilities for engaging in teaching, learning and research. However, scholars (Kyei-Blankson & Keengwe, 2011; Lama & Joullie, 2015) have reported the tensions of inadequate resourcing for online teaching, unaligned skills and qualifications, and the lack of professional development for academics who start teaching online (Brooks & Grajek, 2020).
Kebritchi et al. (2017) talked of the constant pressure academics experience to (re)learn; to augment their teaching, research and scholarship knowledge and skills. This, Saltmarsh and Southerland-Smith (2010) emphasized partly, as academics' need to enhance pedagogical practice to take advantage of new opportunities. Yet interestingly, there appeared little opinion advanced from academics as to their want to be ready for 'new opportunities', the voice of scholar Christopher Schaberg, “I’ll never teach online” (2018) is an example of the exceptions. This most recent pandemic certainly provided a new opportunity, and the prominence of the online delivery of courses became a transformational change that pressured the adoption of alternative student engagement strategies using digital devices and platforms (Hodges et al., 2020). Yet, becoming an online pedagogue and its impact on the subjectivity and identity of academics has remains underexplored.
As Billett (2008; 2015) suggested, learning in the workplace is shaped by individual worker subjectivity, readiness and mindset, and the work environment. The manner of these interactions is influenced by what the workplace affords in terms of opportunities to learn and what is required [permitted] to be learnt (Billett, 2001). Hence, diligent changes in academic workplace practices, once examined, would suggest a sharper focus on the need for change in relation to online teaching, and how this need might be met. This incites a question: What role does their subjectivity, readiness, and mindset (Billett, 2015) play in academics' adoption of new competencies for online teaching?
The global coronavirus pandemic has imposed additional changes occurring both within teaching and learning (e.g., Abusaada & Elshater, 2020), making some academics adjust their teaching practice to impromptu online teaching. However, what is not known is the nature of this adoption and how this has influenced teacher identity, and the conceptions of well-being. Academics found themselves in the relatively new territory of online classes and have been nudged by this circumstance to start learning about what technology can offer to their role. The transition from a traditional face-to-face teaching practice to one in the digital environment may have implications for academics’ perceptions of the efficacious teaching practices as it could mean developing digital competence as a precursor to digital literacy (Alexander et al., 2016; Martin, 2009).