ABSTRACT
Universities place great importance on their educational mission. However, there is increasing concern that learning and teaching strategy, as effected by university leaders, can be impersonal and largely directed at outcomes, not process (Smith 2012). The prioritisation of instrumental outcomes to meet economic challenges is seen by some as compromising a focus on qualitative pedagogy (Ransome 2011). Despite these uncertainties, the promotion of student learning remains strong in the rhetoric and focus of administrators (Trapp 2012). There is more pressure to ensure educational quality and global competition for students and diminished resourcing in many nations have encouraged a stronger focus on the practices and outcomes related to teaching. Students are essential to university functioning, and in turn, effective teachers are essential to their students’ outcomes and experience. Thus, teaching academics have experienced growing pressure to be high-performing, efficient and caring educators, whilst also balancing their research and other academic roles.
