What influences teachers to develop their pedagogical practice?

Abstract

This paper explores to what extent, and how, teachers applying for recognition as excellent teaching practitioners (ETP), express influence of significant others on their pedagogical practice, and how these influences relate to whether the teacher was successful in his/her application or not. The study was based on nineteen portfolios submitted for ETP in 2018 at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH) at Lund University. The portfolios suggest that teachers are primarily influenced by their academic peers and by student feedback. Secondary influencers are pedagogical training and scientific literature. The number of references given to significant others correlate strongly with the chances to be awarded ETP. We suggest that effective academic development and practice are favoured by rich social interactions informed by literature and student voices, benchmarked by stakeholders and facilitated by academic developers.