During the last 20 years, frameworks for rewarding pedagogical achievements have been developed at many Swedish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). More than half of the HEIs in Sweden have implemented a teaching excellence framework (Winka & Ryegård, 2021) and the arguments for these initiatives are similar across the country. Each excellence framework consists of criteria that identify the desired qualities and achievements of an excellent teacher in HE. These criteria are based on the idea of SoTL and despite many similarities among the frameworks, the criteria show variation. We have examined four teaching excellence frameworks, to investigate if the context influence the way SoTL is articulated at each HEI. The main differences between the frameworks are the number of criteria, the content of the criteria, and if the frameworks contain different levels or not. Kreber (2002) distinguished between three different ways in which higher education instructors can engage with teaching. These three forms of engagement were described as teaching excellence, teaching expertise, and the scholarship of teaching. This idea of increasing engagement in scholarly teaching practice is also reflected in some of the Swedish frameworks. We found that all frameworks are based on the concept of SoTL (Boyer, 1991), although this is not always explicitly stated. Some aspects of SoTL are present in all frameworks, such as reflective practice, while each HEI contextualise their criteria by putting emphasis on additional aspects, for example pedagogical leadership, pedagogical outreach and teaching in a disciplinary context. When there are two levels in the framework, the SoTL criteria are expressed either as incremental or with different focus on each level. All four HEIs have adapted the criteria to their own context, despite a common ground in SoTL. This enables each institution to use the teaching excellence framework as a lever for strategic pedagogical development.
References:
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. New Jersey: The Carnegie Foundation.
Kreber, C. (2002). Teaching excellence, teaching expertise and the scholarship of teaching. Innovative higher education 27, s. 5-23.
Winka K. & Ryegård, Åsa. (2021). Pedagogiska meriteringsmodeller vid Sveriges universitet och högskolor. Skriftserie från universitetspedagogik och lärandestöd, nr 1/2021. Umeå universitet.
2023.