Reconsidering Boyer's Reconsideration: Paradigms, Sharing, and Engagement

Ernest Boyer provided a purpose for a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) although he might not have provided a description of the process. Boyer’s contribution concerned the nature of scholarship and research and, as such, it implicitly questioned existing assumptions, paradigms and epistemologies. Disciplinary paradigms are examined through the work of Thomas Kuhn in order to appreciate their strengths and limitations. An analysis of Boyer’s reconsideration of research and scholarship of engagement then provides purpose and direction for the scholarship of teaching. As an emergent discipline, SoTL finds itself defined and described. In that description there are concerns about paradigmatic exclusivity and exclusion and it is suggested that consideration be given to the inclusion of the voice of students and to dialogue with them as co-creators of knowledge