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The practice of situating academic development practitioners within faculties poses challenges for practitioners from outside the particular discipline. Literature highlights how discourse and culture create tensions amongst role-players in cross-disciplinary contexts. This duoethnographic account examines the experiences of two practitioners as insider-outsiders in a health sciences disciplinary space. Duoethnography is a collaborative methodology where researchers, in dialogue, critique the meanings they give to social and epistemological constructs. Drawing on border crossing as theoretical lens, the study signals how the insider-outsider location might be mediated to support quality teaching. Border crossing highlights the construct of frontiers and associated identity work. The study identified critical success factors for collaboration - physical presence over time; knowing what is valued; an established identity as scholar and competent practitioner; a community of practice; recognition and an acknowledgement by faculty management; and personal flexibility, sensitivity, approachability and willingness to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is located in the field of academic development in oral health science education. Specifically, it examines the academic difficulties experienced by oral hygiene students in their transition from high school to university. A qualitative approach was employed to elicit student and lecturer perceptions. Drawing on empirical evidence from a case study of a cohort of first-year oral hygiene students at a dental faculty in South Africa, the article contributes to an understanding of how first-year university students might be better prepared for the challenges of reading and writing in higher education. The voices of lecturers and students are used to highlight the nature of the difficulties that students experience in the transition from high school to university. The suggestions that students made regarding how the transition might be eased are also examined. The final section draws on these suggestions and presents a working model for an academic development module for first-year oral health students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]