Exploring the Complex Interplay of National Learning and Teaching Policy and Academic Development Practice

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal for Academic Development. The version of record, Karen Smith, ‘Exploring the complex interplay of national learning and teaching policy and academic practice’, International Journal for Academic Development, Vol 21(4): 262-272, first published online on 6 April 2016, is available online via doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2016.1169189 Published by Taylor & Francis.Academic developers are important interpreters of policy, yet little research has focussed on the interplay of policy and academic development practice. Using methods from Critical Discourse Analysis, this article analyses a national learning and teaching policy, charts its development, and explores its interpretation by the academic development community. The findings suggest that while developers played a strategic role in the policy’s development nationally, their influence on and use of policy institutionally was more limited. The article calls on developers to take a more overt leadership role in an area of higher education practice where they clearly have (often unharnessed) expertise.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio