Knowing and being in the academy: exploring local approaches for transformative learning

To a large extent, if higher education institutions seek to inscribe themselves within a transformative agenda, this will be done by academics acting as ‘transforming agents’, and by instantiations of transformation both in the curriculum - i.e. in what is being taught in universities, and the knowledge, worldviews, and values that are being conveyed – and in the pedagogies – i.e. the methods, in a broad sense, including techniques, media, and interpersonal approaches - used to communicate this curriculum. In this chapter, we speak from our position as researchers on higher education in the United Kingdom (UK). From this position, we normatively examine the interplay between epistemologies and identities (knowing and being) in the academy, from this transformational perspective. We propose ways of re-thinking academic practices through a focus on professional learning that cultivates ‘authenticity’, and engagement with curricula and pedagogies that challenge current models in Western universities