La figura del secretario

This is a term on which the thesis is based and as such deserves attention by way of definition. In order to facilitate conceptualisation of the term academic professional development it is appropriate to examine what the term professionalism constitutes. According to the UNIVERSITIES UK government consultation paper, professionalism is defined within a Higher Education context as an:

Individual‘s adherence to a set of standards, code of standard, or collection of qualities that characterise accepted practice within a particular area of activity (2004:1).

This suggests that university teachers have to adhere to standards and code of conduct associated with the profession. Usually autonomous organisations and institutions exercise standards to measure the performance of the profession or the individual professional.

Nordkvelle (2006:91) posits another view of professionalization of the role of the academic in higher education in the context of the four areas of ―scholarship‖ stemming from the book by Boyer (1990). Boyer (1990) argues for a new professionalization of the academic‘s role which is broader, involving the four scholarships – discovery, integration, application and teaching. This concept is opposed to the traditional view which defined scholarship as advancement of knowledge in terms of discovery. Consequently the four concepts of scholarship have been hugely influential in discussions about a new professionalism of the teachers of higher education (Nordkvelle, 2006).

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The above conceptualisation fits well with the definition of professional development made by Nixon et al. (2001) and Palinscar (1998). According to Palinscar, professional development of higher education practitioners is viewed as an ―intellectual activity‖ where teachers ―play a participatory role‖ and engage in ―reflective practice‖ to gain insight on teaching problems in the classroom (1998:343). Goodson (2001:185) on the other hand emphasises that ―reflection is at the heart of what it means to be a professional‖. The professional paradigm advocated here involves reflective practice on the part of the academic based on critical engagement of teaching of the discipline. Seyoum (2011) extends the definition of professional development further by considering it to be growth and development of an academic resulting from planned and systematic interventions (Glatthorn, 1995 in Seyoum, 2011:9). He notes that the term professional development in a broader sense refers to the development of ―being in his or her professional role‖ (Seyoum, 2011:1) suggesting that the individual teacher is prepared to occupy the teaching role and function through teacher development.

At a more specified level, teachers‘ professional development is associated with professional growth which the teacher achieves by gaining increased experience and through self examination of one‘s teaching (Glatthorn, 1995). The implication here is that gained experience and self-reflection on classroom experiences which result in professional development of the practitioner. Apart from this there is professional development associated with formal experiences and those which are qualifications based (Ganser, 2000:33). Formal workshop and programmes such as Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education are good examples.

Studies by Fritzmaurice (2008), Nixon (2001), Nixon, Marks, Rowland and Walker (2010) as well as Rowland (2002) have attempted to characterise the notion of professionalization in the context of changing demands experienced in the higher education setting. Interesting discourses around what constitutes professionalization have featured from their studies. A moral agenda as a basis for academics to claim their professionalism emerged as a discourse associated with the notion of professionalism. Fritzmaurice‘s (2008:350) proposition of teaching in higher education as a moral practice demonstrated that academics engaged strongly with the values base of teaching as university teachers. Nixon (2010:181) challenges the academic community to reconsider academic freedom through the discourse of ―freedom for all‖ that is

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inclusive rather than ―freedom for the individual academic.‖ Also Nixon, Marks, Rowland and Walker (2010:233-235) argue that moral purposefulness of the practice should be highlighted if academics are to lay any claim to professionalism.

Academics also reject the concept of professionalization which puts emphasis on teaching because they regard the conduct and publication of research as the employment par excellence of academics. The position arises from the view that discipline based research is the basis on which academics construct their professional identity (Becher, 1984; Becher and Trowler, 2001). Boyer‘s (1990) four forms of scholarship confirm this. Given this perspective, professionalism in the view of the academic is discipline based and does exclude the broader role of the academic. On the above conceptualisation and debate, the conception of professional development is broader than staff development whose concept (definition) is discussed below.

It is generally accepted that staff development involves the enhancement of knowledge and skills of employees of an organisation which leads to adding value to the organisation (Morris, 2009:1). The implication is that the knowledge and skills should ―facilitate change‖ (O‘Leary, 1997) not at institutional level but at both personal and professional levels. Although staff development is defined in various ways, its primary purpose has been presented as the expansion of the educators‘ awareness of the various tasks which contribute to the effective education of the students (Collett and Davison, 1999:37; Webb, 1996; Morris, 2009). Morris describes these tasks more specifically as: ‗teaching and learning, research and scholarship and professional updating‘ (2009:103). Hunzicker (2010:4) suggestes conditions for self-development and proposed that staff development should address teachers‘ specific needs and concerns for it to be relevant, authentic and sustainable. Approaching the discourse of ASD from this perspective will ensure participants‘ motivation as well as integration of the programmes into the academic culture of the institution in an effective way. What is also critical in the discourse of staff development is the promotion of teaching and learning on the basis of reflective practice that should inform the university teacher to see the connection between a learning experience and lecturers‘ teaching actions (Schon, 1983). This conceptualisation of the task of ASD inquiry and reflection as well as growth and development of the individual which are also associated with academic professional

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development should be promoted. Consequently the two terms are used interchangeably in this study.

2.2.3 The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as a form of continuing