A time for learning and teaching? Making the most of the sabbatical
The UKCLE funded research project on the pedagogic impact of law school sabbaticals, undertaken by Maureen Spencer and Penny Kent (Middlesex University), examined the potential of the sabbatical to enhance research and teaching links. The final report can be downloaded at the bottom of the page and the online material here should be seen as a companion to it.
Introduction
The materials comprise a distillation of four possible mechanisms whereby adjustments to the management of academic time, whether or not embodied in a formal sabbatical, may result in an impact on teaching.
The descriptions of the four mechanisms draw on examples of imaginative practice that our questionnaire and interview respondents generously shared with us during the research process. In addition, extracts from email interviews with ten recipients of either National Teaching Fellowships or the award of Law Teacher of the Year (England and Wales) and Law Lecturer of the Year (Scotland) are included. We were very grateful for their reflections on the extent to which their awards included a sabbatical element, and whether they thought sabbaticals for teaching or pedagogical purposes were desirable. These contributions are cited as being from ‘Award Winners’ (AW) and listed numerically to preserve anonymity.
— Penny Kent and Maureen Spencer
Mechanism 1
1. Coherent career planning
Recommendations
- Law academics to plan their careers more strategically
- Teaching outcomes of research sabbaticals to be made explicit
Elsen et al (2009 p67) write: “For most academics a strong connection between research and teaching is seen as an essential part of their job satisfaction.” Arguably, however, such a connection is best achieved by some degree of conscious planning and intervention, in which, depending on institutional policy, research sabbaticals and teaching would both play a part.
Our research findings suggest that law academics could adopt a more proactive approach to career planning, keeping in mind all aspects of their professional requirements. The point was made most forcefully by one respondent, who acknowledged the responsibilities of senior managers in this regard:
My view is that we do not do enough to mentor and support academics’ careers. Our approach is often – just get on with it. Sometimes this is successful, sometimes not…Young academics in particular need to have an idea that their career needs to be planned, there should be expectations on both sides. We need to manage careers more successfully.
— Professor, pre-1992, Scotland
One advantage of taking this strategic approach is that individual academics could become more aware in advance of a sabbatical of how their research work could have specific teaching benefits. The experience of one AW was illuminating. He told us that in a period of study leave he completed a monograph on an aspect of law and literature. He continued:
The research carried out for this book will be of inestimable importance to one of the courses I teach…As far as teaching is concerned, that particular course will benefit more from my completing the book than it would if I had dedicated say one term to the preparation of teaching materials and/or curriculum development.
— (AW7)
The research also indicates that some early career lecturers are adopting a long range approach to their work, and that this may embrace high level pedagogic research. To quote another AW:
I have been building my pedagogical profile over the past couple of years very actively and given some of my recent work is felt to be REF-able, there may be consideration to a sabbatical/bought out pedagogical activity in future. This is more likely to be attractive to the university on the back of the award and funded internally though the university’s Learning Enhancement Strategy…where I can link my interest to a stated aim and a cross-university impact would be felt.
— (AW9)
Another interviewee stressed that there is a growing momentum to try to secure a deeper synergy in academic work:
It is frustrating trying to juggle [teaching and research]. I feel I will never be excellent at either since it is impossible to be excellent at both. People like me are growing in numbers partly because of the PGCHE we have an interest in teaching. We are the first generation to feel the pressure of trying to excel in both. The management of the School are coming around to the idea that they need to invest in both.
— Lecturer, female, pre-1992, Wales and South West England
We did not, however, find any indication from respondents or interviewees that research should be downplayed in favour of teaching, rather that both should be valued. This accords with the findings of the Higher Education Academy’s report, Reward and recognition of teaching in higher education which notes (at p47): “Respondents made it clear that they thought that teaching was as important as research and that academics were not adequately rewarded or recognised for their teaching endeavours. The dominant view was that research should continue to be rewarded at the same level and that rewards for teaching activities should be made comparable”.
Mechanism 2
2. Raising the profile of pedagogic research
Recommendations
- Law schools and departments to encourage the use of sabbaticals for pedagogic research
- Legal academics to support the inclusion of publications on pedagogy in the Research Excellence Framework (REF)
There is little evidence that sabbaticals for research into pedagogy in law are widely offered, compared with the availability of sabbaticals for discipline-based research. One of the ways to raise the profile of research into teaching and learning would therefore be for law schools to be more willing to award sabbaticals for this purpose.
The place of pedagogic research in raising the status of teaching remains under appreciated. As the Higher Education Academy’s 2009 report on the Reward and recognition of teaching in higher education observes (at p26), pedagogic research in the Research Assessment Exercise was rated as one of the “least important processes” in raising the esteem of teaching and learning (the most important being promotion and issues relating to the environment for teaching).
Nevertheless, some universities in our sample do recognise the importance of pedagogic research, as several respondents observed:
The university has a paid sabbatical scheme, focused on the achievement of research, and that would include pedagogic research”.
— AW2
Several respondents emphasised their support for sabbaticals for pedagogic research, in order to give it equal value to subject-based research.
Sabbatical opportunities should be as available for clearly proposed teaching/learning developments or for pedagogical research as for conventional research”.
— AW6
I think study leave should be available (and I believe that it is available) to scholars…who wish to research and develop teaching pedagogy and to disseminate their findings.
— AW7
Recognising the need for sabbaticals for pedagogic research is essential:
[If] universities want to show that they are paying more than lip service to the value of improving the student learning experience they do need to consider seriously proposals which have a clear value and justify some time away from the university, at least equally to the willingness to allow sabbaticals for research.
— AW6
If the activity…is pedagogy and development….HEIs do not make time/money available, but should. The investment in teachers with ideas and knowledge about both the theory and practice of the craft of teaching, and the potential to share as good practice their ideas on a local or global scale, has not been given a high enough priority.
— AW9
The award of a National Teaching Fellowship, Law Teacher of the Year (England and Wales) or Law Lecturer of the Year (Scotland) may help an individual to develop a publication profile in pedagogy for possible entry in the Research Excellence Framework (REF). See UKCLE’s Learning and teaching awards page for details of awards for learning and teaching.
Mechanism 3
3. Sabbaticals and dissemination
Recommendations
- Sabbatical recipients to share with students in advance how the research is to be carried out and to give follow-up seminars
- Students and staff not on sabbatical to participate through webpostings/blogs
A familiar complaint from students is that research takes staff away from the classroom. Lack of tutor availability is thus seen as a problem and sabbaticals as a disruption to the teaching year.
Our research uncovered ways to challenge this negative view by using sabbaticals to bring students more closely into the research community – this would include communicating more publicly the process of research as well as the outcomes. A celebratory approach to sabbatical awards would involve giving one’s students a picture of how the planned research is to take place, what the sources will be and how existing knowledge in the area may be enhanced. Students are then encouraged to see research as an integral part of the intellectual life of the university rather than an inconvenient distraction from their education. They could be enabled to compare this process with the development of their own research skills in undergraduate and graduate study.
Staff sharing information in this way could help induct the student more fully into higher education. As well as lectures and seminars, news of sabbaticals could be included more widely in university websites, newsletters and noticeboards. At the moment, not all universities with sabbatical policies make them available on their websites, so there is considerable room for further input. Researchers in other words should step down from the ivory tower and feel an obligation to communicate with students on why six months away from university teaching is a collective as well as an individual benefit.
Sabbatical recipients could also be asked to keep both staff and students informed about the progress of their research. As one respondent put it:
There should be greater transparency…I think it would be useful to students to know what people on sabbatical are doing, even if it is not in their teaching area. There was a colleague who was on sabbatical who set up a blog while he was away and this was open to students. Those sort of things help involve more people. There is no reason nowadays while people are away that they should not have some sort of reporting mechanism. It would increase interest and show what sort of grants were available for example. You could even provide information to the wider public.
— Lecturer
Mechanism 4
4. Alternative approaches
Recommendations
- To develop team teaching further, with all members of the school or department, including the most senior, involved
- To encourage applications for national teaching awards which may provide resources for pedagogy
A clear view emerged from responses that it was unrealistic in the current research dominated and financially straitened climate to expect law departments to award sabbaticals for preparing teaching materials or pedagogic development. Various alternative approaches emerged which may enable staff to free up time to do such work. These approaches centre on the management and organisation of staff time.
The preparation of teaching materials was largely seen as within the scope of the legal academic’s normal duties:
I don’t think law schools have the time or space (or indeed funds) to permit leave or sabbaticals for [teaching purposes]. It is an essential part of my daily life and therefore it probably is not something that should be the basis for sabbatical or study leave.
— AW1
Although applications for sabbaticals should have equal consideration on research and/or teaching, the economic reality of the challenges ahead in HE is such that not all universities may be able to afford it.
— AW10
Unless:
. ..the outcome is published and eligible for the Research Excellence Framework.
— AW5
Staff work programmes could be drawn up with sufficient flexibility to provide time for curriculum and pedagogic development.
We embed curriculum development and pedagogy into staff work programmes, giving time for these developments alongside teaching duties which are naturally reduced.
— AW4
The preparation of teaching materials is included in the workload allocation for staff.
— AW2
Another respondent considered that to grant study leave to prepare teaching materials would send out the message that teaching excellence could not be achieved within the standard time:
In my opinion, excellence in teaching should be the priority of any university law school and in my law school the current scheme reflects this by limiting study leave to the pursuit of research projects. If it were proposed to grant study leave to develop teaching materials my concern would be that it might send out the message that excellence in teaching is not achievable within the standard time allotted to our roles as university teachers of law. I would also make the point that the best way to improve the delivery of taught courses is to teach them.
— AW7
While it was generally accepted that updating teaching materials was within the work programme, the preparation of distance learning or other new materials might be recognised by payment or by taking some supporting scholarly activity:
[When] when we changed the material we made available to our [distance learning] students, that involved an extensive re-think and re-write and I was paid an over contract sum to assemble a house style and exemplar materials.
— (AW8)
Another respondent identified the possibility of undertaking staff development time to support the preparation of new materials:
We are…allowed to take scholarly activity to further pedagogic development and to prepare new teaching materials although I do not believe that many staff take advantage of this. This may be because it is difficult to do so when lecturers have other responsibilities such as running courses/exam boards/invigilation, etc.
— AW10
The use of team teaching as an alternative way to free up time was seen to play a significant part in the pedagogic development of staff.
All our programmes contain teams of staff and our approach provides for collaborative development which ensures all staff contribute to the process and are fully engaged with the emerging pedagogies being adopted for that programme.
— AW4
Much work in these fields is better conducted in regular contact with teams of colleagues and therefore that sabbaticals may not be the most effective form of relief. I would look for resource input to be shared across [teaching and learning] and research objectives, but to be made available in ways which were most suitable for the task”.
— AW6
Ideally, teams would involve all members of staff, including senior members of the department:
All members of staff, including the Dean and the Associate Deans, continue to have teaching responsibilities – something I consider important
— AW4
One interviewee cited an imaginative approach involving residential weekend writing workshops which he said encouraged a “collective ideal” (Senior Lecturer, male, post-1992, London and the South East).
Applying successfully for an award such as a National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) may in some cases enable the applicant to devote time to pedagogic development. The NTF Scheme offers both individual awards of up to £10,000 and a project stream through which teams may bid for up to £200,000.
I had complete freedom as to how to spend my award but to arrange a substantial sabbatical would have been difficult given the nature of…my responsibilities…I was able to manage a five week period of study leave absence which covered three weeks of the Christmas term and two weeks of vacation time. I used this largely to visit universities in [abroad] which were introducing pedagogic innovations…This provided networking opportunities, insight into different approaches, materials for use and for dissemination and curriculum design ideas, also for use and dissemination.
— AW6
Another respondent illustrated how temporary posts in another country might provide a means to undertake comparative pedagogic study abroad.
I found my own sabbatical opportunity…[A university in country X] took me on for a term as an ‘online tutor’…My visit to [university in country Y] was different – three separate linked weeks in three different institutions – researching and delivering lectures, classes etc.
— AW3
In this case, the NTF award provided help with fares and other costs, but it might be possible for staff to make such arrangements outside the NTF Scheme, for example through the Erasmus staff mobility scheme.
Further research is needed to see if the internal university teaching fellowship schemes available through many universities include an element of study leave.
Conclusion
The effectiveness of these mechanisms in enhancing teaching depends on the prevailing culture of the law school. If that culture is collegiate, non-hierarchical and inclusive it is likely that there will be fertile ground for the research-teaching link to flourish.
A key indicator is whether eminent research staff, including professors, are enthusiastic about involvement in the teaching of undergraduates, including first year students. This practice, unfortunately, does not appear to be universal.
Perhaps the message we can convey from the project is the desirability of seeing that research and teaching embody common principles, namely the quest for knowledge, public communication of ideas and dedication to scrupulous scholarship.
Perhaps research should be more like teaching and teaching more like research.
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