The value of Learning Development in UK HE, as perceived by various interested groups; implications for LD professional identity and development

Proposed professional doctorate thesis entitled: ‘Valuable’, but why exactly? The values attached to the field of ‘Learning Development’ in UK Higher Education: student and staff experiences and their theoretical and practical implications’. Please contact me if you would like more information or share similar research interests.

The above work evolved from a study where I compared how the LD professional role within the UK HE landscape is differently constructed by job descriptions and LD practitioners. I used Linda Evans (2008) ‘demanded’ vs ‘enacted’ professionalisms to compare perspectives of LDers’ roles within and outside the ALDinHE community. I discovered that demanded professionalism undergoes a journey through individual and collective LD values before reaching enacted states, and points of coalescence between the two.