Currently reading Dineen et al. (2026): “Engagement in staff development for learning and teaching in higher education: experiences from a leadership perspective”

Just yesterday I was thinking about the tensions that can arise when someone thinks they are leading educational development top-down and others want to lead bottom-up, and Dineen et al. (2026) refer to the people in the middle as “umbrella carrier”, protecting people and initiatives below from unnecessary asks/tells from above, or modifying the latter to fit disciplinary culture etc., and explore how they navigate their positions.

In four focus groups, they found three main themes:

1. “Acknowledging barriers while digging deeper“, for example the excuse that someone does not have time for staff development depends on what their priorities are that don’t include staff development, but it might also indicate that not enough time is explicitly dedicated to it from leadership.
2. “Institutionalisation of staff development“, i.e. “systemic integration of supports and incentives” so that supports and budgets don’t fluctuate depending on what’s going on in the organisation and nationally.
3. “From a tick-box climate to a culture of learning and teaching“

Interestingly, they don’t find evidence of conflict and umbrella-carrying in their focus groups; they don’t seem to see the need to shield people below since they do not describe inappropriate use of power above. They try to balance tells-from-above and asks-from-below, understanding the positions of both groups of stakeholders, and using their contextual knowledge to creatively translate ambiguous asks, prioritising authenticity. Thus, the position in the middle of the sandwich was perceived as one with informed agency, mediating between the legitimate tells and asks from above and below.

Dineen, K., O’Mahony, C., Gallivan, S., Kluijtmans, M., Stensaker, B., Leschke, J., … & Zhang, T. (2026). Engagement in staff development for learning and teaching in higher education: experiences from a leadership perspective. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 1-11.

Now it is clearly fall!