My interest in this topic emerges from my ow n professional practice. I am
em ployed at a university in the N orth of England as p art of a professional services function in the academic related job of educational developer. This role involves supporting individuals across a w ide range of disciplines on practice related to learning, teaching and assessment. In undertaking this role I have a responsibility to support individuals w ho w ork as occasional teachers, m any of w hom are
postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers.
The university has approxim ately 800 research staff and approxim ately 1500 postgraduate research students and its policy states that these researchers should be allowed and encouraged to undertake a lim ited am ount of teaching and continuous assessment work w hen appropriate, b u t should not undertake this w ithout appropriate pedagogic training, some of which is provided by the professional services of which I am a part. As a result I am involved in the design, co-ordination and delivery of training across a diverse range of disciplines using a combination of classroom and online techniques. This support covers tw o areas of activity.
Firstly, this is through involvem ent in GTA statutory training. This is prim arily directed at doctoral students and is designed to develop competencies, clarify roles and responsibilities, build confidence and facilitate netw orking opportunities. Aspects of teaching covered include: dem onstrating in laboratories; assignment marking; giving student feedback; small group teaching; supporting student projects and giving lectures. This training is provided in the form of
workshops (either full-day or half-day) and each academic year (September to June) over 150 doctoral students from a variety of disciplines participate in this support. Participants are asked to fill in workshop evaluation forms at the end of each training session and (in the main) satisfaction w ith the actual workshop experience (the trainers and the active learning approach) is positive.
The second area of activity involves the co-coordination of a 10 week program m e for individuals w ho w ish to obtain a teaching qualification. This qualification is open to both postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers and involves completing a series of assessment tasks that includes micro-teaching, teaching observation, giving feedback and case study analysis. The qualification is accredited by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and upon successful completion participants are eligible to become Associates of the Academy and use the post nom inal
AHEA. Since its introduction dem and for the course has exceeded places available (there is currently a waiting list). As of February 2012,135 Research Staff and Postgraduate Research Students have successfully completed the course. Course evaluations suggested that accreditation by a recognised professional body makes it attractive and beneficial to participants' professional developm ent aspirations. Through my professional role therefore, the idea for the study emerged.
Although I am directly involved in the training as p art of a central support function, I am in m any ways divorced from the various teaching contexts th at postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers encounter throughout the university in their respective departments. Prior to undertaking this study I knew very little of w hat learning of value m ight be derived from GTA teaching opportunities. As
someone w ith m any years of teaching experience myself I thought this m ight be considerable offering a valuable 'taster' for m any aspects of academic life and influence career aspirations. I also thought it likely that the w orking environments of the GTAs w ould vary significantly and that this is an im portant factor that w ould shape the quality of this learning. A dding to this understanding therefore provided the starting point for the study, prom pted partly by an intellectual curiosity and partly by a m otivation to inform an aspect of my professional practice. The aims of the study are therefore as follows:
• To develop an understanding of the learning about academic practice that postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers develop through teaching experiences.
• To develop an understanding of factors that can facilitate or inhibit this learning.
• To consider the implications for m y ow n professional practice based on w hat I have learned.
The investigation was therefore action orientated, in the sense that a) I studied m y own practice in order to improve it, and b) I proposed to use w hat I was learning to inform institutional policy concerning the developm ent of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers as teachers. H ow ever in doing so, I also recognised the need for conclusions to be draw n from the research which w ould have
implications beyond the bounds of the particular events, customs or people studied and w hich w ould contribute to an im proved theoretical understanding about the relationship betw een teaching and academic developm ent for early career researchers.
This aspiration is based on two assumptions. Firstly, that m any doctoral students and postdoctoral research staff will have opportunities to undertake some form of university teaching. Secondly, that the w ork involved in teaching will be the source of informal learning that is situated in practice. Informal learning has been characterised by Eraut (2004, p.250) as learning which is 'implicit, unintended, opportunistic and unstructured' and w hich takes place 'in the absence of a
teacher'. However, for a researcher confronted w ith these characteristics, trying to make sense of informal learning that is situated in practice is likely to be a
challenge. As Eraut has noted, 'inform al learning is largely invisible because m uch of it is either taken for granted or not recognised as learning' (2004, p,249).