Finding Rhythm on the SoTL Swing

By Earle Abrahamson

After twenty-three years of reflecting and engaging SoTL, I no longer experience it as a destination or a project, but as movement. Looking back across the years, there were slowly building moments of soaring that took my breath away, and many returns to the ground where learning settled into who I was becoming. In this way, SoTL feels to me like a swing, and this swing matters beyond my own classroom.

In my early years on the swing, I sat with my feet firmly planted, holding tight, unsure how much force was needed to begin. The first pushes were small: a question about student engagement, a curiosity about assessment, or a conversation that stayed with me longer than expected. Each push added a little momentum. I did not soar at first, but I began to move, and that movement mattered. These early moments highlight how recognizing and encouraging scholarly work on teaching and learning within disciplines and across fields provides the energy for a swing to start moving.

As the years unfolded, the swing carried me higher. With each arc, I felt more confident leaning back and trusting the motion. Research questions became sharper. Communities grew around the work. Sharing my learning publicly no longer felt like letting go of control but like opening space for connection. Riding the SoTL swing mirrors ISSOTL’s mission to promote cross-disciplinary conversations that generate new questions, spark inquiry and build synergy across fields. From that height, I could see teaching and learning as a wider landscape shaped by relationships, power, context, and care. I was not just doing SoTL, I was becoming through it while contributing to a wider scholarly dialogue.

What has sustained me is not constant ascent, but the rhythm of return. Every swing comes back. After moments of visibility or recognition, there were quieter phases when momentum slowed, and I felt the familiar pull of gravity. At first, I resisted this. I thought slowing meant losing ground. Over time, the swing taught me otherwise. Returning is where learning integrates. It is where insight becomes practice and confidence becomes humility. It is also where cross-disciplinary conversations deepen, and reflection allows us to see how our work might resonate in other disciplines and levels of education.

The chains of the swing held me through it all. These are the commitments that link my work together: listening to students with intention, acting ethically, designing inquiry with care, reflecting honestly, even when evidence unsettles me, and sharing findings openly. Each link has been tested over time, ensuring that motion continues safely and productively. Through ISSOTL, similar chains are built globally between scholars collaborating across borders, enabling the flow of findings and applications to enrich teaching and learning worldwide.

Holding on has been essential. I have held onto values of care and justice. I have held onto the belief that teaching is relational work. Yet the swing has also taught me to loosen my grip. At the highest point of each arc, there is a pause where the swing almost stops. In those moments, I have learned to let go of certainty and allow my understanding to be reshaped. These reflective and generative pauses echo ISSOTL’s commitment to fostering dialogue and shared inquiry that crosses disciplines and educational contexts.

Momentum in SoTL is not about speed. It is about rhythm. There have been seasons where ideas flowed freely and collaboration felt effortless. There have also been seasons when progress was slow and questions felt heavy. The swing has helped me accept both. Forward and back. Effort and ease. This is the rhythm of becoming over time and of contributing meaningfully to the global SOTL community.

Now, when I step onto the SoTL swing, I do so with gratitude. I know the feeling of the seat. I trust the movement. I welcome the soaring, and I respect the return. Riding the SoTL swing has taught me that becoming is never finished. It is built through momentum gathered gently, through having the courage to rise, through reflective pauses, and through wisdom gained in returning to the ground changed and ready for the next push. These rhythms contribute to the shared cross-disciplinary enterprise that ISSOTL nurtures. The SoTL swing teaches us that learning lives in motion where momentum is built gently, perspective is earned slowly, and every return brings us back changed and ready to contribute anew.