TY - CONF
T1 - Transforming education-focused academic roles in higher education
T2 - a scoping review
AU - Keyhanfar, Mehrnaz
AU - Guensche, Sabrina
AU - Hill, Edith
AU - Brown, Shannon
AU - Lower, Karen
AU - King, Svetlana
PY - 2025/10/1
Y1 - 2025/10/1
N2 - Education-focused academic (EFA) roles are gaining international traction as an alternative to traditional ‘balanced’ careers in response to cultural, historical, and political changes. Furthermore, as Australian universities increasingly prioritise student success of equity groups, EFAs are critical in providing a supportive student environment. Despite the importance of EFAs, there are inconsistencies in how the role is conceptualised. Our scoping review (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005) sought to understand how EFA roles are defined/supported. Five databases were searched (ProQuest Social Sciences Premium Collection (ERIC, ProQuest Central, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global), Web of Science, and Scopus) using three concepts: teaching specialist; higher education; and definition/ conceptualisation. After removing duplicates, 1766 articles underwent dual-blinded title/abstract screening with consensus reached by the research team. The same approach was followed for full-text screening. Seventy articles underwent full text screening. Fifteen articles were included with three further articles identified through hand- searching (n=18). Five themes were developed during analysis: historical context; role definition; role perceptions; value of the role; and support structures. We use these findings to present a facilitative framework for EFAs, organised around institutional, leadership, and individual levels. We welcome feedback on this framework as a tool to support EFAs to build fulfilling careers.
AB - Education-focused academic (EFA) roles are gaining international traction as an alternative to traditional ‘balanced’ careers in response to cultural, historical, and political changes. Furthermore, as Australian universities increasingly prioritise student success of equity groups, EFAs are critical in providing a supportive student environment. Despite the importance of EFAs, there are inconsistencies in how the role is conceptualised. Our scoping review (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005) sought to understand how EFA roles are defined/supported. Five databases were searched (ProQuest Social Sciences Premium Collection (ERIC, ProQuest Central, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global), Web of Science, and Scopus) using three concepts: teaching specialist; higher education; and definition/ conceptualisation. After removing duplicates, 1766 articles underwent dual-blinded title/abstract screening with consensus reached by the research team. The same approach was followed for full-text screening. Seventy articles underwent full text screening. Fifteen articles were included with three further articles identified through hand- searching (n=18). Five themes were developed during analysis: historical context; role definition; role perceptions; value of the role; and support structures. We use these findings to present a facilitative framework for EFAs, organised around institutional, leadership, and individual levels. We welcome feedback on this framework as a tool to support EFAs to build fulfilling careers.
KW - higher education
KW - education-focused academic roles
M3 - Abstract
SP - 41
ER -