National Teaching Fellowship 2016

Really pleased to be able to announce that I’ve been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy.

Obviously I am pleased in a vain, ego-driven, seeker-of-external-validation-in-order-to-justify-my-pointless-existence, kind of way. But there is more to it than that.

Where I think the NTF scheme (actually) matters is the focus it puts on learning and teaching in the University sector. It tries to highlight what is sees as excellence, but beyond that tries to find ways of improving the learning experience of students. I don’t think we need to put it in strict, transactional ‘value for money’ terms, but in terms of seeing education as a collaborative enterprise with our students, that needs to the most effective, most transformative, experience it can be. Sometimes, for staff and students, it will be tough (I am, as many of my colleagues will have noticed, keen on the term productive struggle), and often it is amazingly rewarding and enjoyable. Almost fun even.

On that note, of fun, I’ll finish with a link to the photo album of the Religion, Philosophy & Ethics course that I’ve spent the last decade or so teaching on – it’s been a blast:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58244916@N00/