Carolin Kreber – författare

What does it mean to be authentic? Why should it matter whether or not we become more authentic? How might authenticity inform and enhance the social practice of the scholarship of university teaching and, by implication, the learning and development of students?

Authenticity in and through Teaching introduces three distinct perspectives on authenticity, the existential, the critical and the communitarian, and shows what moving towards greater authenticity involves for teachers and students when viewed from each of these angles.

In developing the notion of ‘the scholarship of teaching as an authentic practice'', this book draws on several complementary ideas from social philosophy to explore the nature of this practice and the conditions under which it might qualify as ''authentic''. Other concepts guiding the analysis include ‘virtue’, ''being'', ‘communicative action’, ''power'', ‘critical reflection’ and ‘transformation’. Authenticity in and through Teaching also introduces a vision of the scholarship of teaching whose ultimate aim it is to serve the important interests of students. These important interests, it is argued, are the students’ own striving and development towards greater authenticity. Both teachers and students are thus implicated in a process of transformative learning, including objective and subjective reframing, redefinition and reconstruction, through critical reflection and critical self-reflection on assumptions. It is argued that, in important ways, this transformative process is intimately bound up with becoming more authentic.

Rather than being concerned principally with rendering research evidence of ‘what works’, the scholarship of teaching emerges as a social practice that is equally concerned with the questions surrounding the value, desirability and emancipatory potential of what we do in teaching. The scholarship of teaching, therefore, also engages with the bigger questions of social justice and equality in and through higher education.

The book combines Carolin Kreber''s previous research on authenticity with earlier work on the scholarship of teaching, offering a provocative, fresh and timely perspective on the scholarship of university teaching and professional learning.

What does it mean to be authentic? Why should it matter whether or not we become more authentic? How might authenticity inform and enhance the social practice of the scholarship of university teaching and, by implication, the learning and development of students?

Authenticity in and through Teaching introduces three distinct perspectives on authenticity, the existential, the critical and the communitarian, and shows what moving towards greater authenticity involves for teachers and students when viewed from each of these angles.

In developing the notion of ‘the scholarship of teaching as an authentic practice'', this book draws on several complementary ideas from social philosophy to explore the nature of this practice and the conditions under which it might qualify as ''authentic''. Other concepts guiding the analysis include ‘virtue’, ''being'', ‘communicative action’, ''power'', ‘critical reflection’ and ‘transformation’. Authenticity in and through Teaching also introduces a vision of the scholarship of teaching whose ultimate aim it is to serve the important interests of students. These important interests, it is argued, are the students’ own striving and development towards greater authenticity. Both teachers and students are thus implicated in a process of transformative learning, including objective and subjective reframing, redefinition and reconstruction, through critical reflection and critical self-reflection on assumptions. It is argued that, in important ways, this transformative process is intimately bound up with becoming more authentic.

Rather than being concerned principally with rendering research evidence of ‘what works’, the scholarship of teaching emerges as a social practice that is equally concerned with the questions surrounding the value, desirability and emancipatory potential of what we do in teaching. The scholarship of teaching, therefore, also engages with the bigger questions of social justice and equality in and through higher education.

The book combines Carolin Kreber''s previous research on authenticity with earlier work on the scholarship of teaching, offering a provocative, fresh and timely perspective on the scholarship of university teaching and professional learning.

University teaching and learning take place within ever more specialized disciplinary settings, each characterized by its unique traditions, concepts, practices and procedures. It is now widely recognized that support for teaching and learning needs to take this discipline-specificity into account. However, in a world characterized by rapid change, complexity and uncertainty, problems do not present themselves as distinct subjects but increasingly within trans-disciplinary contexts calling for graduate outcomes that go beyond specialized knowledge and skills. This ground-breaking book highlights the important interplay between context-specific and context-transcendent aspects of teaching, learning and assessment. It explores critical questions, such as:

What are the ‘ways of thinking and practicing’ characteristic of particular disciplines? How can students be supported in becoming participants of particular disciplinary discourse communities?

Can the diversity in teaching, learning and assessment practices that we observe across departments be attributed exclusively to disciplinary structure?

To what extent do the disciplines prepare students for the complexities and uncertainties that characterize their later professional, civic and personal lives?Written for university teachers, educational developers as well as new and experienced researchers of Higher Education, this highly-anticipated first edition offers innovative perspectives from leading Canadian, US and UK scholars on how academic learning within particular disciplines can help students acquire the skills, abilities and dispositions they need to succeed academically and also post graduation.

Carolin Kreber is Professor of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and the Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment at the University of Edinburgh

University teaching and learning take place within ever more specialized disciplinary settings, each characterized by its unique traditions, concepts, practices and procedures. It is now widely recognized that support for teaching and learning needs to take this discipline-specificity into account. However, in a world characterized by rapid change, complexity and uncertainty, problems do not present themselves as distinct subjects but increasingly within trans-disciplinary contexts calling for graduate outcomes that go beyond specialized knowledge and skills. This ground-breaking book highlights the important interplay between context-specific and context-transcendent aspects of teaching, learning and assessment. It explores critical questions, such as:

What are the ‘ways of thinking and practicing’ characteristic of particular disciplines? How can students be supported in becoming participants of particular disciplinary discourse communities?

Can the diversity in teaching, learning and assessment practices that we observe across departments be attributed exclusively to disciplinary structure?

To what extent do the disciplines prepare students for the complexities and uncertainties that characterize their later professional, civic and personal lives?Written for university teachers, educational developers as well as new and experienced researchers of Higher Education, this highly-anticipated first edition offers innovative perspectives from leading Canadian, US and UK scholars on how academic learning within particular disciplines can help students acquire the skills, abilities and dispositions they need to succeed academically and also post graduation.

Carolin Kreber is Professor of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and the Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment at the University of Edinburgh

Imagined at their best, how might professions contribute most effectively to their local and global communities, and how could higher education support graduates/future professionals in making this contribution? The answer proposed in this book is to educate students for ‘civic-mindedness’, an overarching professional capability grounded in certain dispositions and qualities, ideals, types of knowledge and political emotions. ‘Civic-mindedness’, and its internal counterpart, the practitioner’s self-cultivation, give rise to an engagement with professional practice that is authentic, civic and democratic. The tension between responsiveness or regard for others and regard for self is overcome by recognising that authentic professional identities are constructed through practices around shared purposes and ideals.

Drawing on a wide range of theorists including Dewey, Arendt, and Nussbaum, professions are envisaged to play a vital role. Primarily professions support society’s well-being by ensuring access to public goods, such as local and global justice, access to information, health, education, safety, housing, the beauty and sustaining power of the ecological environment, among others. Yet professions also protect the fundamental good of citizen participation in free deliberation and decision-making on issues affecting their lives. The book concludes with a vision of higher education that is transformative of graduates/professionals, pedagogies, professional practices and communities.

Issues of increasing social awareness are a key concern for anyone involved in teaching professionals and this book, which builds best practice around a sound theoretical and philosophical framework, will prove both thought-provoking and practical in application.