Attention for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as a powerful professional development strategy and catalyst for educational improvement has increased over the past decades (Hutchings et al., 2011; Tight, 2017). Boyer (1990) introduced the concept SoTL as an area of scholarship in which university teachers conduct systematic inquiry into their own educational practices to better understand the mechanisms behind student learning, and improve both teaching and learning. Thus, SoTL can be regarded as a form of teacher research. An important SoTL characteristic is that it is practice-oriented: the research is based on and conducted within teachers' own context. Moreover, many scholars envision SoTL as being public, so that others can learn from and further build on it (Kern et al., 2015). Although SoTL is especially gaining traction in English speaking countries, it has emerged as an alternative model to teacher professional development in mainland Europe as well (Fanghanel et al., 2016). Potentially, SoTL may empower universities to fulfill their mission to ‘Chart the Way Forward’ for both teachers and students (Hutchings & Shulman, 1999). Yet, despite this potential, empirical knowledge of its actual impact remains rather limited.

Previous research suggests that the overall impact of professional development programs in higher education is influenced by how participants interact with others and exchange experiences (Stes et al., 2010; Van Waes, 2017). In this context, social network theory provides a useful conceptual framework for understanding how people interact with others, and how these social interactions affect outcomes (Borgatti & Cross, 2003; Pataraia et al., 2014), which may include performance, motivation, and beliefs, but also knowledge transfer and uptake (Sleegers et al., 2019). Network characteristics that can explain professional development outcomes include network diversity and network intentionality, i.e. the degree to which individuals consciously act to strengthen their network. On a relationship level, tie strength, physical proximity, and hierarchy may support and constrain change in teaching networks (Van Waes, 2017).

Building on social network theory, the goal of this study is to gain insight into how social networks of university teachers engaging in SoTL can support, spread or slow down the overall impact of their SoTL projects. Specifically, this study aims to understand 1) how university teachers engage their professional networks during SoTL projects, and 2) how their social interactions within these networks shape knowledge sharing, teaching practices, and attitudes toward SoTL.

To understand how university teachers engage their professional networks we employed a qualitative ego network approach (Bellotti, 2015). In social network analysis, an ego network approach focuses on the relevant connections and interactions surrounding a single individual (the ‘ego’, and in this case the teacher engaging in SoTL) and the immediate relationships (‘ties’) that are relevant to them. Taking an ego network approach allows in-depth investigation of each tie (Van Waes, 2017) and provides a meaningful and nuanced understanding of the potentials for impact that networks have as perceived by respondents themselves (Hizli Alkan, 2021). In two rounds of semi-structured interviews with fourteen university teachers participating in a SoTL program, we explored the composition of the egos’ networks (i.e., with whom participants had relevant interactions concerning their SoTL project) and how they engaged their network. The first round of interviews took place during the program, and the second interview round was conducted after completion of the program. The added value of having two rounds of data collection is that it helped to enhance the reliability of the data and that possible changes within the networks could also be measured. To gain further insight into how social interactions within the participants’ networks may shape the impact of SoTL, we selected four participants with diverse network structures – varying in size and composition – and differing levels of intentionality in their networking strategies. Within these networks, we then interviewed network members about their involvement in and interactions related to the SoTL project, and how these contributed to its broader impact. The interviews with the in total 23 network members took place after completion of the SoTL project and provided insight in their perspective on their relationship with the SoTL participant, how they had been involved in the SoTL project, what they knew about the SoTL projects’ outcomes, and whether there had been any impact on their own teaching practices and/or attitudes towards SoTL. The interview data of both the SoTL program participants and their network members were analyzed qualitatively in Atlas.ti. We used thematic analysis to identify and interpret patterns of meaning (‘themes’) within the data (see Braun & Clarke, 2006).

The participants’ network structures varied in size and composition. The number of ties identified ranged from three to over thirty, with larger networks tending to be more diverse. Five out of fourteen participants interacted exclusively with fellow participants and direct colleagues. Half of the participants (N=7) also engaged with colleagues from other departments within the same university, while five participants had relevant ties beyond the university. Moreover, participants employed varying strategies to involve their network. Participants with high network intentionality tended to engage in deeper forms of collaboration, sometimes even including co-ownership of the SoTL project, rather than having interactions that focused merely on informing or consulting. Across the different networks, we found that interactions with the professional networks were mostly focused on promoting an inquiry stance rather than disseminating specific project outcomes or sharing substantive knowledge. As a consequence, one year after completion of the SoTL projects the immediate impact on colleagues’ teaching practices seemed limited, even among those colleagues in close proximity. Supportive institutional environments, characterized by strong interpersonal ties and low degrees of hierarchy, further encouraged interactions that cultivated positive attitudes toward SoTL and a collective interest in it – even when participants demonstrated low intentionality in network-building. Lastly, the findings suggest that engaging a diverse group of peers and integrating their perspectives can further help to unlock SoTL’s transformative potential (see Kreber, 2013). Higher education institutions can facilitate this by designing support initiatives that both strengthen and broaden professional networks and by promoting a culture of educational inquiry. During the session, we aim to explore to what extent these outcomes resonate with a wider European audience, engage in a critical dialogue on its implications, and discuss strategies for strengthening connections that support and catalyze the impact of SoTL across our institutions to ‘Chart the Way Forward’.

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