Weaving community narratives of vulnerability into our SoTL tapestry

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) scholars weave to embrace and connect from their genuine contributions to the experiences of staff and students; putting SoTL on the map as a unified society and a culture worthy of recognition. As Eady and Riffenburg (2023) write, “Meaningful, community-focused research demands that researchers be hawks who lift a community” (p. 1).

Undeniably, SoTL scholars value the benefits and significance of SoTL activities and initiatives, however, despite Boyer’s transformative work identifying teaching as a scholarly activity and the decades of published work on the positive influence for staff, and students; in contemporary practice there continues to be unfamiliarity and inattention within institutions of what SoTL is (Kern et al., 2015). With this continued inattention the lasting imprint on SoTL scholars is lack of identity, recognition, and a sense of vulnerability of their worth and how they fit in the teaching and learning space.

Loveless and Bodle (2016) contend that whilst everyone has vulnerabilities it is the ability to reflect on oneself alongside others that will lead to examining experiences through conversations. Furthermore, it is not empathising with those that are vulnerable to help them, “instead…in the spirit of Lilla Watson, an Australian Aboriginal artist and activist…If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time; but if you are here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together” (Loveless and Bodle, 2016, p. xii).

A diverse group of SoTL scholars united to deliberate on ‘vulnerability’ from their own personal journeys in academia which resulted in the exposé of varied pleasures and pains. Despite the vulnerability amongst the group, each SoTL scholar was dedicated to a vision of SoTL being recognised and celebrated for its vital contribution to university activities and its equivalence to research related scholarship.