Publications Advisory Committee announces Teaching & Learning Inquiry Associate Editors

The Publications Advisory Committee, which helps to guide and plan for the development of the Society’s journal, Teaching & Learning Inquiry, is pleased to announce the selection of three associate editors: Stephen Bloch-Schulman, Lucy Mercer-Mapstone, and Kelly Schrum. You will find a brief biographical note from each of them below.

The role of the associate editor is new to TLI, reflecting an expansion of its editorial model in response to growing interest in the journal, corresponding demands on the editorial team, an intention to build a sustainable editorial structure, and the journal’s commitment to supporting the professional development of SoTL colleagues around the world.

The call for applications yielded a strong pool: multiple candidates with a range of experience in editing and the scholarship of teaching and learning.  Given the strengths of the candidates, we looked then for an international representation, a range of disciplinary backgrounds, and distinctive strengths that can support ISSOTL’s aspirations for TLI going forward. The appointment is for three years, beginning immediately.   

The three individuals now taking on these vital positions will play overlapping roles in shepherding submissions through the process—the fundamental and ongoing work of the journal.  Additionally, each will also take responsibility for specific areas of growth for the journal.  Our new associate editors bring impressive vision and passion to their work in the scholarship of teaching and learning.  We are very excited to have them on the team that will take TLI to its next level.

Stephen Bloch-Schulman

I am an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Elon University, in Elon, North Carolina (U.S.A.) and work at the intersection of political philosophy–and democratic theory, more specifically–and the scholarship of teaching and learning. I have served on the boards of TLI (since its founding), Partnerships: A Journal of Service Learning and Civic Engagement (since 2012), and College Teaching (2012-2016). I have published in TLI, Teaching Philosophy and the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, often focusing on philosophic methods in SoTL and teaching, the causes of the underrepresentation of students from marginalized groups within philosophy, and student-faculty partnerships.

As I was asked to focus on supporting peer reviewers, I will add that I gain great joy from reviewing, seeing it as a chance to help scholars develop their ideas as others have helped me. I very much try to review as, what Elizabeth Minnich calls, a “thinking friend” and see doing so as a way to build a community of scholars, both diverse and often in disagreement and with common causes that bring them together. I thus see reviewing, as I do with teaching, as a way to learn about and further democratic values and goals, as a way to think carefully about thinking with others and the nature of valuable and generative conversation.

Lucy Mercer-Mapstone

I am an Endeavour Research Fellow at the Institute for Academic Development, University of Edinburgh. In March 2019, I will begin a new role as Lecturer in Higher Education Learning Design at the University of Technology Sydney. My research in teaching and learning spans international contexts and areas, including student engagement through partnership, equity and inclusion of underserved students, academic development, scholarship of teaching and learning, science education, and development of graduate attributes. I have been an inaugural co-editor of the International Journal for Students as Partners and a member of an ISSOTL International Collaborative Writing Group. I am currently a co-chair for the ISSOTL Student Engagement Special Interest Group and publish in a wide range of higher education journals. 

As associate editor, I have been asked to take on leadership for TLI’s international outreach, focusing on soliciting submissions, especially from underrepresented regions, and increasing the visibility of TLI in international networks. I take a relationship-centred approach to my research and practice and I look forward to inviting, nurturing, and sustaining relationships and networks with the journal’s new and existing authors, readers, and reviewers. Amplifying voices from underrepresented backgrounds has always been a passion of mine and I greatly look forward to building inclusion and diversity as a strength of TLI in the future.

Kelly Schrum

I am an associate professor in the Higher Education Program at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia (U.S.A). My research and teaching focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning and on teaching and learning in the digital age, including hybrid and online learning environments and scholarly digital storytelling. A historian by training, I have directed more than 60 digital humanities and digital teaching and learning projects with funding from federal and state agencies and foundations. Recent publications include articles on scholarly digital storytelling and on collaboration and inquiry-based learning in hybrid and online settings. I am currently researching teaching and learning with scholarly digital storytelling in higher education.

I am honored to join TLI as an associate editor with the goal of cultivating and expanding TLI’s digital capacity, including reviewing digital publications and content focused on SOTL in the digital age. I am eager to explore new digital formats and to support digital SOTL work throughout the publication process. This is a strong and growing area, as demonstrated by the many presentations at the 2018 ISSOTL conference on digital resources and teaching and learning in blended and online environments.