Dissemination of Teaching and Learning Practices by Higher Education Leaders in the Global South: the STHEM Brasil Case

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday V)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Education for sustainability: learning from abroad

Proposal

Dissemination of Teaching and Learning Practices by Higher Education Leaders in the Global South: the STHEM Brasil Case

Faculty development programs have existed for decades and are expected to cause change in teachers as well as students. However, there may not be an effective impact in case programs are not effective. Such programs may not be the key to cause an impact, but the way they are implemented may be the reason for success. The outcomes can be various and barriers for successful implementation may make the process difficult for school leaders. Thus, for effective implementation of changes in teaching and learning practices, engagement by leaders at different levels is an important factor. One factor that contributes to effective professional development is the effective dissemination of knowledge and it will be crucial for higher education institutions that wish to innovate. There are different ways to disseminate practices but to achieve their full potential, an appropriate environment must be in place.
The objective of this paper is to identify the factors that contribute and/or hamper the dissemination of teaching and learning practices by leaders of Brazilian higher education institutions that form the STHEM Brasil, a consortium of 55 universities and colleges in Brazil that aim to improve the quality of teaching and learning within these institutions. Yearly, these leaders attend a weeklong series of workshops organized by Laspau, a non-profit affiliated with Harvard that works with university innovation in Latin America.
This study is important for several reasons. First, there is still an inconsistency in regards to whether they positively cause any sort of impact. Hence this study aims to present a different context which will contribute to an understanding of the factors that contribute and/or hamper the dissemination of such practices. Second, research on leadership in higher education frequently overlooks the role of leaders in teaching and learning. Third, Lastly, given that institutional resources may be limited, forming interorganizational networks may contribute to advancing common goals, and understanding how they work in teaching and learning in the global south is an important theme.
This mixed-method study is divided into three phases. The first phase consists of gathering and analysing documents pertinent to the STHEM Brasil program. The second phase refers to a survey given to all leaders who were responsible for disseminating the practices in their home institutions (colleges and universities). The last phase was comprised of interviews with a selected number of participants.

Findings

How the program currently works: The higher education institutions interested in this process pay a fee to join the consortium and at the same time are actively engaged in this process, in addition to allocating resources such as time and effective leadership. The higher administration of each institution selects the leaders to participate in the STHEM Brasil program. To participate in the program, the ideal leaders must demonstrate institutional commitment and an interest in learning and implementing new methodologies. After participation, they are expected to change their teaching practices that benefit students, and positive results are published in different media such as websites, social media, journals and the book.
These leaders are also expected to form communities of practice among themselves, where they share practices and work alongside on different projects which include publishing on official media organized by the consortium and Laspau. They are also supposed to disseminate the knowledge they gained during the workshop with other faculty members, with the main activity being training programs. The leaders can also form communities of practice within their institutions, in which they may work with member(s) of the higher administration and other faculty members.
Notwithstanding, there are still issues (factors that hinder) in regards to the involvement of some of the actors. For instance, there was a leader who did not disseminate their knowledge with faculty members. Also, several respondents in the interviews and survey mentioned the lack of engagement of their faculty, who were not open to learn about the technologies, and therefore may not change their practices with other students or participate in institutional communities of practice.
These lead to the conclusion that the STHEM Brasil project still has some work to do in order to achieve the greatest possibility of uptake, upscaling and sustainability, but it is definitely going in the right direction. The efforts made by both the consortium and institutions definitely prove that these environments (higher education institutions) are capable of change, and the outcomes are being shared with the whole community. The challenges they are facing in the dissemination can be overcome with minor changes, but that still require resources. For instance, they must think of alternative ways of working with faculty members who do not have the time and/or are not engaged in the process. In addition, as mentioned in the survey, STHEM Brasil and Laspau should provide ongoing support after the weeklong program is over and recognize the successes of some leaders and consider their role in future editions of the program.

Answers to questions required in the call for submissions that are not in the proposal:

The consequences of this study are twofold: First, the Consortium is working on making the necessary changes to foster an environment that promotes the dissemination of knowledge in a larger scale and more effectively, as well as leaders of some of these institutions. Second, Laspau wants to replicate this study with two other networks - in Panama and Costa Rica - and understand how dissemination occurs in those contexts.
The reason for me to be submitting this paper is that I aim to obtain feedback on this article to improve for possible publication as well as learn more about other university networks that work in other contexts and with different goals. One thing that I would have done differently in this study that I was not able to do was to attend the weeklong seminar and talk to the leaders and observe their interactions in this seminar.

Author

• Kelber Tozini, Boston College