I work as an academic developer at the Centre for Educational Development, Umeå University
My name is Claire Englund and I work as an academic developer at the Centre for Educational Development, Umeå University. My role involves teaching on the professional development courses given by the centre and also the provision of support and advice for academic teaching staff and management, particularly concerning the development and implementation of technology enhanced teaching and learning. I am also responsible for PUNKTUM (Pedagogical development for curiosity and creativity at Umeå University), coordinating the application and evaluation process together with representatives from the university's four faculties.
In March 2018 I defended my PhD thesis "Teaching in a world of complexity: exploring academic change and development in higher education". The overall aim of my doctoral research was to explore the factors that impact on academic change and development in a technology rich teaching environment. In particular, focus lay on contributory factors that may be relevant in the design of academic development activities to support teachers and managers in the development of teaching and learning in higher education. The implementation and use of educational technologies is examined from a Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) perspective and relationships between technology use and pedagogical approaches investigated. To explore the factors that impact on academic change and development a 12-year longitudinal study of teachers on an online pharmacy programme at Umeå University, Sweden was carried out. Changes in the teachers' conceptions of and approaches to teaching and learning with technology were traced over time and the impact of contextual factors on conceptual change were examined by investigating the influence of departmental teaching communities and institutional policy on teaching practice. Finally, the research explored the use of an interventionist method, the Change Laboratory, to instigate collaborative development processes at the meso-level of programme teaching team.