Research, teaching and service to society are the main tasks of a large university. The research-teaching nexus is often put forward as the one aspect qualifying university programmes from those of higher education institutions directed mainly towards teaching. However, how research informs the quality of teaching cannot be taken for granted and varies between disciplines (Lueddeke 2003). Academic promotion in most cases still is based in research qualifications only. During the last decades the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has developed as a strategy to strengthen the research-teaching nexus and to support both educational development and individual academics’ careers (Hutchings et al. 2002, Aschwin & Trigwell 2004). How then do we judge the progress of the SoTL-strategy at the university level? Different kinds of publications on teaching and learning play a substantial role in the implementation of SoTL: A development of new publication practices should be expected if the strategy is successfully implemented.    

 In Sweden, each university teacher is supposed to present a report on teaching and learning in their discipline as a part of their higher education teacher training. These courses were made mandatory in 2003 and from 2005 and onwards they are framed by a set of common learning outcomes based in the perspective of SoTL (Lindberg-Sand & Sonesson 2008). Academic developers and their units (ADU:s) are engaged in the support needed for the implementation of SoTL, but the organisational forms and cultural resources scaffolding these activities differ considerably between institutions. Since 2005 new arenas for presenting scholarly work in teaching and learning have developed both at national and institutional levels. Thus, it is also expected that the number of contributions from Swedish academics in international journals directed towards teaching and learning in higher education will increase.

 The aim of this project is to judge to what extent the perspective of SoTL has been integrated in educational development at Lund University. In Sweden this research-intensive institution has had a prominent position in developing a quality culture based in SoTL (Mårtensson et al. 2011). The aim is accomplished by exploring the publication patterns in teaching and learning at different faculties during the period 2005-2010, and relating them to the varying organisational practices of and disciplinary approaches to educational development at each faculty.

 The study is framed by a socio-cultural perspective on teaching and learning (Wenger 1998). The different communities in which academics pursue their missions are viewed as the foundations both for teaching and research. In this study publications are viewed as boundary objects travelling between different communities. The publication practices are closely linked to the disciplines and have hereto primarily involved making research known outside the community and the university. Teaching and learning were then mostly enclosed in disciplinary practices and not made public. With the implementation of SoTL new kinds of publications are produced, which as boundary object may affect the activities in other communities both within and outside the university in quite different ways compared to ordinary research publications.

Ashwin, P. Trigwell, K. (2004). Investigating staff and educational development. In D. Baume & P. Kahn (Eds.), Enhancing staff and educational development (pp. 117–131). London: Routledge Falmer. Hutchings, P. Bjork, C. & Babb, M. (2002). The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: An Annotated Bibliography. PS: Political Science & Politics 35 (2): 233–36. Lindberg-Sand, Å. Sonesson, A. (2008). Compulsory higher education teacher training in Sweden; Development of a national standards framework based in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Tertiary Education and Management, TEAM, 14(2), 123-139. Lueddeke, G. (2003). Professionalising teaching practice in higher education: A study of disciplinary variation and teaching scholarship. Studies in Higher Education (SRHE), 28(2),213-228. Mårtensson, K. Roxå, T. & Olsson, T. (2011). Developing a quality culture through the scholarship of teaching and learning. Higher Education Research & Development, 30:1, 51-62. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice. Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.