Welcome to the DARE to Transform Blog.

The blog is one of the University’s outlets for sharing scholarship of teaching and learning. It forms part of the activities of the Development, Advancement and Recognition in Education (DARE) to Transform Network which was established in 2019 to serve as a scholarship and pedagogical research incubator, through the establishment of a community of practice and range of supporting initiatives to advance teaching, learning and assessment and encourage educational experimentation and enquiry.

Boyer’s groundbreaking work, recognising the different forms of scholarship within the academy and how they intersect (Boyer, 1990) led to the the development of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as a discipline in its own right. Scholarship should also be viewed as a proactive concept, such that, knowledge is actively and continually developed, applied and improved, and collaboratively shared with the wider community. This increasing focus on SoTL has led to the development of Education and Scholarship career frameworks within Higher Education including the University of Sussex. The framework for scholarship that Sussex has adopted evolves as colleagues progress through different career levels, moving from a focus on developing the academic’s own knowledge and practice to influencing and leading the field. The Sussex model of scholarship builds on the DART model (Kern et al., 2015), adding mentoring and leadership into the development process. This approach recognises that the curriculum, systems of assessment, student experience initiatives, widening participation activities and community engagement endeavours represent key avenues for both scholarship and pedagogic research.  Social media channels, digital repositories, online journals and other digital platforms provide multiple mechanisms for disseminating outcomes of scholarly activities into society, culture, professional networks, research communities and the wider HE context.

DARE to Transform comprises a number of different streams of activity to support colleagues in developing their scholarship, including a mentoring scheme, invited seminars, case studies featuring scholarship stories and internal and external scholarship opportunities.

The DARE to Transform blog has been established as an open, online publishing outlet for both early career and experienced colleagues across the University to share and disseminate scholarly outputs.  These may address a range of thematic areas and take the form of reflective posts, opinion pieces, educational resources or initial findings from action research.  Should you wish to write for this blog or get involved in any the activities associated with DARE to Transform please email DARE@sussex.ac.uk

You can find further information relating to the blog scope and style guidance here.

DARE is coordinated by Dr Susan Smith (Business School) and Dr David Walker (Student Experience) with support from colleagues across the institution.

References:

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton University Press, 3175 Princeton Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648.

Kern, B., Mettetal, G., Dixson, M., & Morgan, R. K. (2015). The role of SoTL in the academy: Upon the 25th anniversary of Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1-14.