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Fellowship Myth Busting!

Zapping the Fellowship Myths

So second day of NTU Fellowship week, second blog. In this blog we are going to face up to some myths that float about and at times get in the way of colleagues engaging with fellowship. The elements of this blog are reflected in the guidance you can find on the NOW learning room to support you as you write up your fellowship discussion.

After discussing this with our reviewers, and a quick shout out on twitter, here are the biggest culprits that we need to shut down about fellowship:

  1. You must progress through the fellowship categories one at a time, beginning with Associate Fellow This just isn’t the case. The term category rather than level is very purposeful. Finding yourself on the UKPSF is about linking your experience and current practice with the descriptors. This means that you can “enter” the UKPSF with a direct claim for SFHEA without having even held FHEA. It isn’t linear. In the same way associate fellow isn’t a “basic” version of fellow but just represents the areas of activity a person is engaging in. It is worth completing the Fellowship Category Tool from AdvanceHE as this helps you locate yourself on the UKPSF and the relevant category according to your activity.
  2. You must be a manager to achieve Senior Fellow Zap, nope. A senior fellow claim does relate to academic leadership in the way an individual performs “Successful co-ordination, support, supervision, management and/ or mentoring of others (whether individuals and/or teams) in relation to teaching and learning” this may be part of a line-manager role but doesn’t have to be. You could be responding to the above SFHEA element through reviewing fellowship applications, sharing your pedagogic practice via staff development events, acting as an external examiner- there are many ways into this category.
  3. Fellowship is only for excellent university educators – This is a tough one because excellence is… well excellent. However thank you to @AbbyCathcart1 QUT, Australia, for the reminder that “the beauty of the PSF is it’s focus on effectiveness instead”. Your claim must meet the threshold set out in the category descriptors but context is important so it is critical you justify what you have implemented, why it was important for your situation and what has been the impact.
  4. Fellowship is only for teachers/ academics– The UKPSF appreciates that there are many roles, individuals and teams who influence teaching and learning. The categories speak to this diversity, particularly for associate fellow and senior fellow as there is no need to be directly teaching students. Your claims need to illustrate how you are impacting on teaching and learning. Busted!
  5. I must to provide lots of references and citations – A fellowship claim isn’t like an academic assignment or an article. References citations may appear in your submission but likely to link to the way literature has influence/ inspired you to modify your practice. Or indeed you might be highlighting your own published work as evidence of impact and the way in which you have developed an expertise in a learning and teaching approach.
  6. Engagement in CPD needs to be a formal attendance to a workshop or training programme– Try to think broadly about how your practice has been shaped. Your CPD engagement might be a reading group, twitter opportunities including the very brill @lthechat or even charting the way you have learnt from participating in validation panels. Whatever the CPD format, the critical element is detailing how this has influenced your practice. Plus for SFHEA it is good to track how you have shared your CPD wealth with colleagues and peers.
  7. Finally, 7a-e! a) It’s very easy. b) It’s very hard. c) It can be done very quickly. d) It takes forever. e) This is not for the TEF’s benefit, it’s for your benefit. Thank you to @johngcanning who helped with this list! It goes without saying there are many interpretations and opinions about fellowship. Some sceptics, some converts and some avoiding it at all costs. Get to know your scheme, talk with others and be reassured….most people once achieved do comment on the usefulness and even enjoyment to be found in fellowship.

Our work busting fellowship myths will undoubtedly continue but hopefully this blog has hit a few of the big ones. Please do join the conversation #fellowshipat4

NTU Fellowship Community- More than numbers

Welcome to Fellowship Week 2019 at NTU. This is the first time we have hosted a fellowship week where we shine a light on professional recognition for learning and teaching at NTU.  This is an opportunity to turn up the volume on fellowship, share experiences and celebrate our learning and teaching landscape at NTU. But wait, over the week we are joined via #fellowshipat4 @NtuTilt by individuals across the UK and globally- so welcome!

But first a little local knowledge………………

In the Summer 2018, the NTU was re-accredited by AdvanceHE to award all categories of fellowship gained via submission to the scheme or by successful completion of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice. The award of fellowship and engagement in the Professional Standards Framework is based on the premise of reflective practice- the ability to bring criticality to your academic practice, to showcase your academic decisions and your effective responses to learning situations.

Like many institutions, we have taken several routes to embed professional recognition into the systems and structures of NTU- from placing emphasis on contractual requirements via linking to human resources and career pathways to signposting colleagues to support mechanisms. Our current puzzle is thinking about how we provide more flexibility in our support and approach. We are aware that not everyone likes to digest information in guidebooks or have time to attend formal workshops. What we have observed though is that when people get together and are invited to talk about their teaching and learning practice the room can light up! Fellowship week, the use of twitter and proactively sharing fellowship experiences is our way of testing the waters to create more of a social movement around fellowship.

A community at a glance

NTU Fellowship Community (data correct Feb 2019)

Here’s what our fellowship community looks like in terms of numbers across the categories. However the graphic hides the diversity of which we are proud of. Within those numbers are individuals from all the disciplines at NTU; individuals who are full time, part time and hourly paid lecturers; individuals who are technicians, work in support services, line managers, teachers and researchers. More diversity lies in the claims these individuals have authored to gain their fellowship including expertise in technology-enhanced learning, successful leaders, assessment gurus and those with a flair for creative pedagogies- to name but a few! A special mention and thanks goes out to our reviewers, advocates and mentors who support the fellowship scheme. These individuals are an essential part of our community, ensuring equity of experience, quality assurance and enhancing the way the scheme is developed. So whilst as a community there is a unifying thread of responding and upholding the UKPSF- the diversity is what makes our fellowship community a thriving and stimulating place.

Fellowship Community Action

So knowing more about our fellowship community should go some way in reassuring you that you are far from on your own in this fellowship game. In fact knock on your colleague’s door and ask where they are up to with their submission- who in your department is a reviewer?

With over 1,000 individuals, our fellowship community is a powerful resource. It however requires nurturing both formally and from the action of the individuals. Here’s a few ideas:

  • Tying your scholarship activity with fellowship requirements. If you are drafting a new module handbook or testing out a revised assessment strategy- spend 20 minutes to write a case study based on this experience.
  • Linking fellowship up with your research activity. If you are submitting abstracts to conferences think how you are embedding your research outputs into curricula. Doctoral supervisor? You can make a fellowship claim in this role
  • Whatever stage you are in your fellowship writing or whichever category you are aiming for check out the NOW Learning Room for support & resources
  • Share your fellowship status. Add your post-nominals to your email signature, update your HR teams with changes to your fellowship status.
  • Talking about your fellowship journey- what helped? how did you motivate yourself?
  • Seen a great piece of teaching or learning support? Encourage the person to write it up as a case study for their fellowship submission
  • We are looking for case studies, vlogs and blogs that tell others about fellowship. Interested in creating this (could be added as evidence for SFHEA!)
  • Join in with fellowship week! You can join a workshop (advertised in the NOW learning room) or keep dropping by this blog space. Over the week we will publish a blog a day covering writing tips & busting fellowship myths. We will also be uploading some videos on NOW from members of our fellowship community about their experiences.
  • Follow #fellowshipat4 and chip into the discussion about your fellowship activities
  • Don’t stop on Friday! Fellowship week is a kick start- we would like to learn from activities over the week but do plan to continue. In fact save the date 27th March 20.00GMT we will be joining @lthechat & @AdvanceHE_chat for a twitterchat to share ideas about reflective practice in HE.