This showcase explores the nature of emotions and emotional labour experienced in the relational dynamics between academic developers (ADs) and educators (ACs) in online learning environments.
Background
The online environment results in a socio-material and relational space for learning which prior to the COVID-19 pandemic had only been experienced by a subset of higher education academics, learners, and academic developers (Harris & Whiting, 2024). Increasingly, academics are teaching online and performing the ‘emotional labour’ of managing their own emotions and socio-emotional support to students (Bennett, 2014; Naylor & Nyanjom, 2021 & Nyanjom & Naylor, 2021). Academic developers likewise perform emotional labour in supporting to academics in their work (e.g., Aitchison et al, 2020). The relational dynamics between these two groups and the emotional work they each perform remains relatively unexplored.
Description and methods
This qualitative study drew on semi- structured interviews of teaching staff (n=6) and academic developers (n=7), from two Western Australian universities. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis and focusing on in vivo coding. Two researchers coded each transcript.
Evidence
Academic educators in this study expressed profound struggles in connecting to learners online highlighting their changed approaches in forging socio-emotional connections with learners in online learning environments while suppressing their own frustrations around technological challenges, workload, and lack of support. Academic developers suppressed frustrations at academics’ resistance to online learning, increasingly took on a pastoral role in supporting academics’ emotional needs and strove to develop relationships with academics despite institutional challenges. Practical implications of our project are the need for explicit training and support for academic developers.
Contribution:
Our study uniquely focuses on the emotional labour of both the university teachers and academic developers providing insights into approaches to support both groups.
Engagement
Interactive audience polls allow the audience to tap into shared solutions and co-design interventions.

Being an academic is a complex context to navigate. Many early career academics are particularly challenged by working out how to build their identity, frame their directions and balance their different portfolios whilst also navigating the politics and expectations of their own discipline and local environment. Mentorship is also often limited.
This presentation will report on the Sydney Women's Leadership Program (SWLP) - a bespoke academic program that has been successfully delivered since 2016 at the University of Sydney. This customised program offers 20 Level B academic women the opportunity to build a stronger sense of identity, strategy and voice through six full-day workshops and coaching. It integrates a number of innovative features:
- exploring teaching, research and leadership
- mentoring
- coaching
- promotion support
- 360 degree reviews to enable participant self-knowledge and agency.
The program has been evaluated every year to determine the impact and effectiveness of its delivery. This presentation will share some of the features of the program that have contributed to its enduring success and highlight particular aspects of the program that have supported its high quality delivery and evidence of impact. This is the first time this program has been showcased. It is hoped that other developers may source useful ideas to enhance their own offerings.

Focus: The effect of regionalised forms of global university rankings on the strategic orientation and everyday research and teaching practices in contemporary higher education—particularly in the global South—based on a case study of the Chilean university system.
Background/context: Over the last decade, the emergence of regional applications of global university rankings, based on only slightly modified criteria, has simultaneously reinforced and disrupted social assumptions of quality historically formed through national accreditation systems and localised rankings models (Hazelkorn, 2019). Regionalised global rankings have become increasingly influential with more prominent socio-political demands for globalised-local universities (Bernasconi & Knobel, 2021; Véliz & Marshall, 2021).
However, there is limited research on the practical impact of ever more powerful regionalised global rankings on local institutional practices (Darwin & Barahona, 2023; Guaglianone, 2018).
Description: The qualitative research reported here investigated the situated effect of these new rankings using the case study of Chile. Data based on a purposive sample were generated through semi-structured interviews (n=18) with university leaders, an analysis of key institutional characteristics and an artifact analysis of localised references to global rankings.
Evidence: Outcomes demonstrated rankings were creating strong and diverse tensions related to conceptions of institutional legitimacy, legitimate epistemologies, and (in)equity of global assessment expectations applied to differently formed institutions. These tensions are forcing differing institutional responses based on rankings outcomes, often to the detriment of local missions, language, and social expectations of institutions.
Contribution: Despite the conception of rankings as objective and benign, they embody critical assumptions—particularly outside the Anglosphere—that can significantly distort the focus of universities and academics (and not only in the global South).
Engagement: The presentation will conclude with several reflective-stimulus questions designed to encourage audience dialogue around the escalating social impact of university rankings, and their potentially distorting effect on institutional-academic perceptions of teaching/research quality.

Focus: Provision of a practical application of fostering an education community and presentation of the outcomes of the initiative.
Background: Facilitating open dialogues on pedagogy enables educators across disciplines to collectively navigate and innovate in higher education. Informal and formal discussions about teaching allow educators to learn from peers, challenge assumptions and explore diverse perspectives to improve teaching practice (Thomson & Barrie, 2021). Fostering informal dialogue between educators who have a shared context can allow teaching challenges to be addressed collaboratively and quickly whilst discretion is maintained (Thomson & Trigwell, 2018).
Description: The Education Coffee Club is presented as an innovation to cultivate interdisciplinary ties among health educators within a newly established academic school that encompasses four diverse health programs. The monthly coffee club welcomes all teaching staff to share their effective teaching methods or discuss teaching challenges, formally or informally. Emphasizing collaboration, we explore the inception, execution, and evaluation of this educational innovation’s impact on shared teaching methodologies and community building between educators.
Method: A survey, created by the education coffee club co-leads, anonymously evaluates the effectiveness and advantages of the initiative and areas for improvement. A mixed methods approach incorporated 6 multiple-choice questions and 9 open-ended questions. To boost engagement and guide enhancement in the format and content of meetings, the analysis will identify recurring themes among interdisciplinary members' experiences.
Evidence: Ethics approved (iRECS5724). Survey conducted in February 2024. 11 completed responses were received. Preliminary findings show the initiative is fostering a positive education community. Final results will be presented.
Contribution: By exploring this collaborative initiative, we examine ways to facilitate conversations between educators, and how this contributes to building a teaching community that shares practice.
Engagement: Reflective question – what opportunities do you have in your workplace to share your teaching practice and learn from other educators?