The interest in ‘formation’ in the project is inspired by how this concept is articulated and approached in several studies on professional education from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Benner, Sutphen, Leonard & Day 2010; Walker, Golde, Jones, Bueschel & Hutchings, 2008; Foster, Dahill, Golemon & Tolentino 2006). These studies show that most university programmes help students become knowledgeable and technically competent but to a large extent neglect the implications of what is at the core of professions and their importance to society: the ethical purpose to serve the public. With some exceptions, professional education tend to provide factual knowledge and skills as separate from values and the overall purpose of their profession (Shulman 2009; Sullivan, & Rosin 2008).
In the project, the concept will be used in analysis of a wide range of attributes, experiences, capabilities that cut across practices of academic developers’ skilled know how, knowledge, and moral engagement as they work with academic staff to educate their students (also see Sutphen & de Lange 2015).
References
Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V. & Day L. (2010). Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Walker, G., Golde, C., Jones, L., Bueschel, A., & Hutchings, P. (2008). The Formation of Scholars: Rethinking Doctoral Education for the Twenty-First Century. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Foster, C. R., Dahill, L. E., Golemon, L. A., & Tolentino, B. W. (2006). Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and Pastoral Imagination. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Shulman, L. (2009). Foreword. In S.D. Sheppard, K. Macatangay, A. Colby & Sullivan, W.M. Educating engineers. Designing for the future of the field, vii–xi. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sullivan, W.M. & Rosin, M.S. (2008): A New Agenda for Higher Education. Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.
Suthphen, M. & de Lange, T. (2015). What if formation? A conceptual discussion. Higher Education Research & Development 34(2), p 411-419.