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This research used Novakian concept mapping and interview techniques to track changes in knowledge and understanding amongst students and their supervisors in the course of full-time research towards a laboratory science-based PhD. This detailed longitudinal case study analysis measures both cognitive change in the specific subjects that are the topic for research, and the understanding of the process of PhD level research and supervision. The data show the challenges for students and supervisors from different national, ethnic, cultural, and academic backgrounds and traditions with a focus on how this impacts the PhD research process and development. Working cross-culturally, and often in a setting different from either the student or the supervisor's background and training, can lead to a lack of common language and understanding for the development of a pedagogically oriented supervisory relationship. Documenting change in knowledge and understanding among PhD students and their supervisors is key to surfacing what the joint processes of mutual democratic research and of supervision may entail. This study explores how one of these key processes is a student's developing sense of belonging (or non-belonging). Specifically, this paper engages the concepts of belonging, and democratic education through mutual learning, to explore the practices of working across national, cultural, ethnic, and diverse academic backgrounds, for both supervisors and students. Doctoral study is understood as a situated context in which belonging also acts as a gateway for who can join the global scientific community.

The shift towards an ecological university may be the key to achieving greater levels of social justice within higher education. This assumes that we could change the root metaphor of higher education--away from the current industrial model that is infused with neoliberal ideology and towards a more sustainable ecological model. This change involves five key moves that require us to: construct an institutional natural history to understand the network of interactions within the university; to explore the nature of the dominant narratives and move away from a narrative monoculture; to value post-abyssal thinking that includes cultural knowledge as well as academic knowledge; to move away from dependence on heroic leaders towards ecological leadership, and to consider how we can develop sustainable pedagogies that can withstand disturbances to the ecosystem. This paper acknowledges that coordination of these moves presents a considerable challenge to university managers.

This paper uses an autoethnographic case study to analyse the difficulties inherent in the professional journey from bioscience researcher to research-informed, reflective bioscience teacher. This is viewed through a philosophy of becoming. The major demand placed upon the academic to achieve this transition is seen as the conscious adoption of a perspective that embraces epistemological pluralism -- also described as post-abyssal thinking. This recognises the value of alternative epistemological views and the way they can contribute to professional development. An explicit recognition of this challenge may provide a tool to support bioscience researchers to become integrated academics and relieve some of the tensions that exist, for example between teaching and research.

This conceptual paper offers a reconsideration of the application of Novakian concept mapping to higher education research by putting to work the Deleuzian concept of the rhizome. We ask: what does thinking with Deleuze's concepts offer researchers interested in concept mapping, and what conceptual, and terminological, obstacles might be created through such a reconceptualization? We have focused on the rhizomatic principles of mapping and tracing in the context of concept mapping. We contend that Deleuze offers a fresh line of flight with the potential to deterritorialise the discourse surrounding concept mapping, thus widening its applicability and increasing its accessibility to researchers who do not necessarily share the same arborescent concept mapping heritage: with its roots in science education. Exploring the overlap between rhizomatics and concept mapping also allows for the reappraisal and blurring of the boundary between structural and post-structural discourses--breaking down an unproductive binary in the literature.

This paper explores the development of educational theory (pedagogic frailty) that has emerged through the application of concept maps to understand teachers' conceptions of their roles within the complex higher education environment. Within this conceptual paper, pedagogic frailty is reinterpreted using the lens offered by the concept of salutogenesis to place the model in a more positive frame that can offer greater utility for university managers. This development parallels changes in the consideration of mental health literacy (MHL) across university campuses and avoids misapplication of a deficit model to the professional enhancement of teaching quality. For a detailed explication of this wider perspective of pedagogic health literacy (PHL), the connections with related and supporting concepts need to be explained. These include 'assets', 'wellness' and a 'sense of coherence'. Links between these concepts are introduced here. This reframing of the model has used concept mapping to explore the relationship between two complex ideas--pedagogic frailty and salutogenesis. It emphasizes pedagogic health as a continuum operating between frailty and resilience. Brief implications for academic development are included.

Concept maps have been shown to have a positive impact on the quality of student learning in a variety of disciplinary contexts and educational levels from primary school to university by helping students to connect ideas and develop a productive knowledge structure to support future learning. However, the evaluation of concept maps has always been a contentious issue. Some authors focus on the quantitative assessment of maps, while others prefer a more descriptive determination of map quality. To our knowledge, no previous consideration of concept maps has evaluated the different types of knowledge (e.g., procedural and conceptual) embedded within a concept map, or the ways in which they may interact. In this paper we consider maps using the lens provided by the Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to analyze concept maps in terms of semantic gravity and semantic density. Weaving between these qualitatively, different knowledges are considered necessary to achieve professional knowledge or expert understanding. Exemplar maps are used as illustrations of the way in which students may navigate their learning towards expertise and how this is manifested in their concept maps. Implications for curriculum design and teaching evaluation are included.

The university-as-ecosystem concept provides a framework for the analysis of the dynamic maintenance of sustainable pedagogies within the university. Application of Holling's adaptive cycle, used to describe the active constructive and destructive processes of stabilisation and destabilisation within an ecosystem, is explored here in the context of the ecological university. The cycle predicts that disruptions to the system initiate a period of reorganisation. The concept of nested cycles (a panarchy) is explored in the higher education teaching environment here for the first time. Crucially, this shows how adaptive cycles within ecosystems occur at different scales of time and space that might align with different levels within the university -- the individual, the department/discipline, and the institution. These levels need to be in communication with each other in order to develop in ways that are complementary and mutually supportive. As decisions about teaching are made with a mixture of objective, evidence-based reasoning alongside more subjective and affective thinking, a degree of epistemological pluralism is required to support the development of post-abyssal thinking to promote consilience across the ecology of knowledges. The potential of an epistemologically plural ecological lens is discussed in the context of university teaching.

This article presents an ecological frame for reflection on teaching at university. It is suggested here that the process of professional reflection on practice can be better aligned with processes of institutional development by applying the adaptive cycle. This heuristic emerged from the scientific literature on ecosystem maintenance and has been repurposed to allow the consideration of complex social-ecological systems -- such as a university. The nature of the adaptive cycle changes over time to accommodate changes in the exterior (the institution and wider society) and interior (e.g. personal experience and wellbeing) professional environments. These cycling changes offer a descriptive tool to support discussion of university teacher development.

The dominant narratives currently offering critique of the neoliberal university suggest a professional environment that is both uncaring and unhealthy. This paper adopts a Deleuzian gaze on the rhizomatic multiplicity of teaching to identify and reinterpret key lines of flight within this assemblage -- identified as care, pedagogic health and salutogenesis. It is argued that the perspective described by the coexistence of these lines may develop a more positive ontology as a basis from which a university may be able to work towards a more productive state of healthy learning. The point at which the three lines of flight co-exist is hypothesised as a 'triple point'.

Many topics within the psychology curriculum can be described as "sensitive", with potential for students to experience distress and discomfort. Given the pressure experienced by academics in Higher Education, the potential for student distress or complaints might lead lecturers to adopt a risk-averse approach to teaching, which is well represented by the concept of Pedagogic Frailty (Kinchin et al., 2016). Through interviews with nine psychology lecturers, we uncover the common concerns that arise when teaching sensitive topics, and the strategies employed to overcome these concerns. We also suggest that where teaching is strongly influenced by the values underpinning Psychological Literacy, those teaching sensitive topics may be less vulnerable to the characteristics of Pedagogic Frailty, as the risks associated with the teaching of sensitive topics are offset by the perceived importance of exposing students to sensitive topics. The implications for the teaching of psychology are discussed.

This article examines teachers' perspectives on a neglected area of practice: academic referencing. Commonly considered a simple skill to learn, we suggest that instead a study of referencing practices enables us to glean valuable insight into the challenges experienced by students when developing a learner identity. Drawing on interviews with academic staff, this article depicts teachers' experiences as they support students with referencing and academic literacy practices. However, the intentions of teachers to develop students are shown to be at variance with student outcomes, as students appear increasingly disengaged from an area of academic practice that they find mysterious and opaque, and as staff report an increase in the number of cases of plagiarism and academic misconduct. We conclude with a consideration of the need to widen understanding of the complex challenges experienced by students when grappling with citation practices. Moreover, we contend that the development of academic literacy practices can play a key role within students' development of a learner identity, and can impact upon students' sense of belonging and becoming into and through higher education.

The concept of recipience is emerging within the literature as a useful idea to inform our understanding of student engagement with feedback. In this paper, the applicability of the concept of recipience is broadened from its origins in the literature on student feedback to consider its role in developing student knowledge structures that are more receptive to development. This will promote cumulative/meaningful learning that is required to construct professional knowledge. By drawing on Legitimation Code Theory, and visualising the morphology of target knowledge structures in relation to their position on the semantic plane (of semantic gravity vs. semantic density), a fresh perspective is offered to inform student learning that can suggest ways of enhancing the quality of student learning. This is achieved by explicitly enabling the construction of a more coherent perspective of the knowledge terrain generated by complex curricula.

The detailed analysis and scoring of concept maps may not be necessary in order for students to gain from their use in the classroom. A simplified recognition of different types ('species') of map may increase the likelihood of teachers employing maps in their classrooms so that more teachers and students might benefit from concept mapping on a regular basis. A greater familiarity and level of engagement with concept maps is likely to support an increase in the level of mapping expertise developed by both teachers and students, enabling maps to be used to support higher order thinking skills -- as intended. The counter-intuitive conclusion to this prospect is that the adoption of a non-analytical consideration of maps may actually make them a more valuable classroom asset. However, this requires a greater level of expertise in the application of concept maps on the part of the teacher. A simplified typology of 'map species' is presented to support the development of this perspective.

This article examines the challenges experienced by students when developing referencing practices. There has been minimal research into students' development of their referencing skills, with referencing often considered a mechanistic skill and not worthy of attention. This paper argues that, rather, referencing is an area of practice imbued with issues of power and identity and that the difficulties students experience in this area are leading them to exhibit a lack of agency -- ultimately, a form of educational 'frailty'. Worried about plagiarism and confused by feedback, rather than developing the independent research skills we would wish, students look for instruction, and report feelings of anxiety. These themes are explored using questionnaires and interviews with a small number of undergraduate students. Based on the findings, this article concludes by making recommendations for widening our understanding of the difficulties students encounter, the need for further discussion and potentially greater scaffolding and support.

Students as partners (SaP) practices are emerging in today's universities as a means to offer a more participative agenda, and to transform institutional cultures within an increasingly economically driven higher education context. This study contributes to understandings of partnership approaches, which largely still remain under-theorised, through exploring the conceptualisation of SaP by institutional leaders, staff, and students. Drawing on data from concept map-mediated interviews, this article offers a counterview to recent studies that have depicted staff understandings of SaP to be firmly located within a neoliberal discourse. Rather, our interviews portray surprising overlaps within students' and leaders' conceptualisations of SaP, depicting recurrent themes of communication, dialogue, community, and enabling students to escape neoliberal constructions: to become 'more than customers'. This article ends with a consideration of how investigating the ways in which students and staff conceptualise SaP can be valuable, as partnership approaches become further prioritised in institutional strategies.

This article focuses on 'transition' and how it is understood within higher education. Drawing on data from concept map-mediated interviews at two institutions, we examine the conceptions of transition held by academic and professional staff, who work to support students' learning into and through higher education. We suggest that normative understandings of transition often draw upon a grand-narrative that orchestrates and reiterates a stereotypic understanding of students' experiences. Often this narrative involves students' interpellation into a field of discourse where the subject is constructed as both homogeneous and in deficit: ill-prepared, lacking in independence, as vulnerable and in need of support. However, this study suggests that beneath this discourse lies a more nuanced picture: one where students' experiences can be conceptualised as diverse and fluid. Moreover, we employ the concept of pedagogic 'frailty' to expose the significance of the environments and wider contexts in which students 'transition', and to explore the impact of systemic tensions upon students' experiences. This article further argues that future research should shift discussions away from the deficits of students, and examine how we can make underlying environmental and systemic challenges more explicit, in order to widen our understanding and discussions of these constraints.

Background: One approach to enhancing the pedagogy of science education is to employ academics who are not only science-trained but also engaged in education research. As some academics begin their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research careers with a pure science background, shifting in disciplinary perspectives can be a source of professional tension. The pedagogic frailty model provides a framework that helps us to integrate institutional efforts to enhance teaching improvements by maintaining a simultaneous focus on critical areas that are thought to impede academic development. Purpose: This paper draws attention to the importance of disciplinary crossover by uncovering and comparing academics' teaching perspectives, views and beliefs from three disciplines: natural science (chemistry), social science (education) and science education. Method: Through a case study design using the pedagogic frailty model and concept map-mediated interviews as a tool, three academics engaged in a non-linear discourse in which their conceptions could be visualised and analysed. Findings and Discussion: Analysis of the case study interviews indicated that the academics' conceptions of teaching were highly individualised. The discourse surrounding the curriculum, and the embeddedness of and connection between pedagogy and discipline, were both subject-sensitive and influenced by professional backgrounds and research areas. On the other hand, because they operated under the same institutional values and regulations, we found a considerable overlap in terms of how the academics perceived the tensions between research and teaching and academic leadership. By comparing three academics who were at a different stage in the journey from disciplinary experts (chemistry) to teaching expert (education), we were able to uncover and understand more about the ways that the teaching environment impacted upon their practices. The science educator shared aspects of the other two perspectives, which suggests that his profile was a transitory state in comparison with the chemist and the educationist. Conclusion: The findings provide a glimpse of the distinctive nature of the values that underpin teaching and offer insights that can be used to promote dialogue about quality enhancement in science education.

The emerging literature related to feedback literacy has hitherto focused primarily on students' engagement with feedback, and yet an analysis of academics' feedback literacy is also of interest to those seeking to understand effective strategies to engage with feedback. Data from concept map-mediated interviews and reflections, with a team of six colleagues, surface academics' responses to receiving critical feedback via scholarly peer review. Our findings reveal that feedback can be visceral and affecting, but that academics employ a number of strategies to engage with this process. This process can lead to actions that are both instrumental, enabling academics to more effectively 'play the game' of publication, as well as to learning that is more positively and holistically developmental. This study thus aims to open up a dialogue with colleagues internationally about the role of feedback literacy, for both academics and students. By openly sharing our own experiences we seek to normalise the difficulties academics routinely experience whilst engaging with critical feedback, to share the learning and strategies which can result from peer review feedback, and to explore how academics may occupy a comparable role to students who also receive evaluation of their work.

This paper investigates the underexplored area of "othering" of migrant academics within their teaching context. Nine personal narratives of migrant academics' teaching were analysed qualitatively for indications of pedagogical othering. Migrant academics indicated the need to align their own pedagogic values and practices with that of their host institutions they work in as they felt their own values and practices were considered less desirable. We argue, from a Gramsci's hegemonic perspective, that the pedagogic adaptation by migrant academics aimed at improving student learning is not problematic in itself, but more problematic is the inequality of opportunity for migrant academics to contribute to pedagogical decisions which can meaningfully influence the departmental culture. Lack of pedagogic democracy where the 'home' academic environment has a monopoly of knowledge and a hegemonic position regarding learning and teaching can compromise the student-learning experience by limiting articulation of alternative pedagogical perspectives by the migrant international academics.

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This paper offers an approach to support the development of reflective teaching practice among university academics that can be used to promote dialogue about quality enhancement and the student experience. Pedagogic frailty has been proposed as a unifying concept that may help to integrate institutional efforts to enhance teaching within universities by helping to maintain a simultaneous focus on key areas that are thought to impede development of pedagogy. These areas and the links that have been proposed to connect them are interrogated here through the dialogic analysis of a framed autoethnographic narrative produced by a community 'insider' who has considerable experience of teaching within the arts and humanities. This person-centred methodology acknowledges the subjective nature of teaching and gives voice to important stories that otherwise might not be heard formally, and allows an academic to rehearse this voice individually before comparing it with others in the institution.

This paper considers the process of professional becoming for an academic developer as a complex transition towards epistemological plurality. This is a necessary step to appreciate and support the lived experiences of teachers across the spectrum of academic disciplines. Viewed through an ecological lens, the complexity of the developmental journey becomes more achievable as it can be broken down into a series of adaptive cycles that move from 'dependence' to 'independence', and from 'epistemologically singular' to 'epistemologically plural'. We suggest that the descriptive power of the ecological lens may be helpful to academic developers to contextualize their own professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedagogic frailty has been proposed as a unifying concept that may help to integrate institutional efforts to enhance teaching within universities by helping to maintain a simultaneous focus on key areas that are thought to impede the development of pedagogy. These areas and the links that have been proposed to connect them are interrogated here through the analysis of an autoethnographic narrative produced by a community "insider" who has considerable experience of teaching and researching geography. This person-centred methodology acknowledges the subjective nature of teaching, gives voice to important stories that might not otherwise be heard formally and provides a case study that can been used as an exemplar to promote institutional dialogue about quality enhancement and the student experience. The findings from this case study suggest that colleagues may be able to repurpose disciplinary concepts to help make sense of the learning and teaching discourse.