Academic misconduct is a growing concern within Canadian higher education and around the world. Research suggests that university faculty have an extensive history of addressing academic misconduct, with an increased focus on detection and prevention. There has been little research, however, on faculty teaching in community colleges and their experiences with reporting and prevention, particularly within the Canadian context. As concern with academic misconduct continues to rise, we suggest that there needs to be more focus on these issues, particularly with respect to approaches that support a cultural shift with faculty that encompasses the fundamental values of academic integrity. For this to occur, it is essential for educational institutions to understand the forces that influence potential dishonest behaviors among students, create policies to address and support academic integrity, while creating a culture of academic integrity which supports both faculty and students alike. Faculty play a crucial role in creating environments that expound and uphold the values of academic integrity. Faculty are the frontline contact, espousing the values and expectations of their institution to students, monitoring, and reporting. Our scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research was motivated by the aim to help community college faculty address the issue of academic misconduct within their classrooms and institutional environments. Barriers to reporting academic dishonesty, identified by faculty, include time and workload in reporting, a perceived lack of institutional support from administration and applicable institutional policies, as well as the perceived threat felt by faculty in reporting incidents.

Mid-career faculty (MCF) currently make up a significant number of faculty at higher educational institutions. This group comprises key stakeholders with institutional history, diverse teaching and learning experiences, and strong relationships with colleagues. While faculty need different kinds of support and opportunities at different career stages, it has been reported that mid-career professional development is under-researched and overlooked. We contend that professional development for MCF is essential if these faculty are going to continue to grow as educators, leaders, and scholars. With the support of Educational Developers (EDs), the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is one way for faculty to focus their professional development in the middle years of their career. Drawing on the literature about challenges for MCF and using the micro-meso-macro-mega framework, we explore ways in which EDs can use SoTL to re-engage MCF on a revitalized path. Our synthesis offers reflections on our career experiences as EDs and boundary-spanning points to ponder for both EDs and MCF as they enter into SoTL engagement.

In this paper, we seek to contextualize our work in SoTL-focused educational development and those who work to support others in SoTL, as interstitially spaced across the 4M Framework, re-envisioned as a flexible but formalized professional continua. The establishment of a model for educational development SoTL-related activity allows for the opportunity to explore how this work is done in a systematic manner. We offer our ideas and visions through, what we term, the 4M Continua for Educational Development as a possible understanding of the work that SoTL-focused educational developers do, as well as those who engage in educational development more broadly. While the 4M Framework provides a guide through four interrelated organizational lenses: micro; meso; macro; and mega, we have adapted a model to situate educational development work using the 4M Framework to inform the ways in which we do, contribute to, consume, advocate, and support SoTL broadly, including at local, provincial, national, and international levels. The 4M Continua can be an avenue for those who do educational development to describe their work, where the work is situated, and how support can be offered throughout the community.

This paper explores the metaphor of the “Big Tent” in the context of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), highlighting the metaphor’s limitations in capturing the complexities and tensions within the scholarly community. This paper delves into the conflicts arising from differing methodologies, epistemological stances, and disciplinary boundaries, viewing them as manifestations of intellectual vigor rather than weaknesses. The paper emphasizes the role of academic training in shaping our perceptions and biases towards educational research and underscores the need for acknowledging these biases in order to foster meaningful dialogue and bridge the diversity in SoTL. We revisit past research on the principles of good practice in SoTL and the shifted focus from “students” to “learners,” acknowledging faculty as perpetual learners in improving teaching practices. The paper proposes an additional principle to elevate SoTL from “good” to “great”: the explicit identification of our SoTL lens. This involves acknowledging our biases, disciplinary perspectives, and methodological preferences in order to enhance the transparency and richness of scholarly conversations. The paper concludes with a call to embrace self-awareness and invites others to do the same, aiming to refine our collective vision and make SoTL endeavors not just inclusive but truly transformative.

The challenges and tensions experienced by mid-career faculty (MCF) can lead to frustration, disengagement, or leaving the professoriate altogether, a trend noted by researchers prior to and especially after the pandemic. In this article, we explore the role that collegial support and career reflection and assessment strategies targeting mid-career faculty can play to preserve institutional vitality, support faculty agency, and promote student success. Additionally, we propose initiatives and supports that may assist these faculty members in staying in the academy and staying well as they pursue professional fulfillment and work towards their goals, including promotion to full professorship. We contend that post-secondary campuses should invest in keeping MCF engaged because of the crucial roles they serve on campus.

Considering the expansive context of the international Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) community, SoTL scholars may wish to reflect and identify what exists for building and nurturing fellowship, and how they may be enacted in practice to benefit others. In this reflective article, we draw on our experiences as International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) Fellows to offer seven guiding principles for building fellowship. These principles include: (1) create space, (2) avoid and resist formal roles, (3) maintain confidentiality and build trust, (4) allow members to self-determine their level of engagement, (5) embrace a group process that is emergent and organic, (6) find congruence in values, and (7) acknowledge the evolutionary nature of the collective. When considered as a meaningful process of community building and engagement, these principles may be useful points of discussion, reflection, and as Felten (2013) states in relation to his Principles for Good Practices in SoTL, to “...articulate a vision of scholarship that enhances, perhaps even transforms, teaching and learning in higher education” (p. 121). Much like Felten, our objective was not to craft a detailed, step-by-step guide for fellowship. Instead, we have provided a series of reference points intended to help people clarify and demystify their own SoTL communities and networks, whether these communities are formal or informal in nature.