Higher Education Academic Staff: Professional Identity and Sense of

Community as the Key to Enhancing Teaching Quality

The Culture of Sharing Educational Resources in the Catalan University System

Teresa Sancho Vinuesa

, M. Rosa Estela Carbonell

Clàudia Sànchez Bonvehí

and Joana Villalonga Pons

Estudis d'Informàtica, Multimèdia i Telecomunicació, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Dept. Matemàtica Aplicada III, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona Tech, Barcelona, Spain

Consorci de Biblioteques Universitàries de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Keywords: Catalan Universities, CIRAX, Collaboration, Community, Institutional Repositories, Open Educational

Resources, Professional Identity, Teaching Quality.

Abstract: This study presents an analysis of the main features of teaching community of the Catalan university

system, from both the individual activity of professors and the sense of belonging to a community. The basis

of the present study is the meaning and the sense of community: a required factor for collaboration between

professors, sharing and reusing teaching resources and, for ultimately, the success of a teaching and learning

resources repository. Common goals that determine a community of practice can encourage collaboration

through the network. The discussion presented here is based on the analysis of the pilot program

“Col·laboratori Interuniversitari de Recursos d’Aprenentatge en Xarxa” (CIRAX), developed in 2013 in the

field of teaching and learning introductory mathematics in the Catalan university system.

1 INTRODUCTION

In 2013, in the context of the European

Commission's Opening up Education initiative,

“Col·laboratori Interuniversitari de Recursos

d’Aprenentatge en Xarxa” (CIRAX) was born.

CIRAX is an interuniversity program funded by the

Catalan government and its pilot-experience has

been developed by lecturers of introductory

mathematical courses at different Catalan

universities. This project was basically motivated by

three factors:

a) Transverse opening movement (Openness),

which led into the development of ICT.

b) Communities of practice which share knowledge

across the network.

c) Necessity to ensure a qualified Higher Education

to respond the Europe 2020 strategy for smart,

sustainable and inclusive growth.

In order to improve the teaching quality at

university, this project aims to promote and

consolidate a teaching community which should be

active in the creation, updating and sharing

resources, and learning practices. The tool for

achieving this goal is a repository-in-collaboration

where resources could be shared, well-catalogued

and well-managed. It should facilitate a subject

preparation as well as the sharing of proposals and

teaching works. CIRAX pilot experience allows us

to analyse the role of teaching at universities and its

quality, while putting particular emphasis on the

higher education academic staff identity and the

sense of community, as a success factor for

collaboration, sharing and reuse of open educational

resources.

Different sections of this article describe the

different issues surrounding the utilization, sharing

and reutilization of networking resources in the

Higher Education context, in our territorial

framework and within mathematics academic

community.

The first section contextualizes the teaching

activity in Spanish Higher Education. The second

part points out to some basic ideas about the

definition of the sense of community, as well as

some features on professional identity. The third

section focuses on the existence and coexistence of

different online repositories and platforms, as well

as their utilization. Then, it sets down the way in

105

Sancho Vinuesa T., Estela Carbonell M., Sànchez Bonvehí C. and Villalonga Pons J..

Higher Education Academic Staff: Professional Identity and Sense of Community as the Key to Enhancing Teaching Quality - The Culture of Sharing

Educational Resources in the Catalan University System.

DOI: 10.5220/0004956001050110

In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2014), pages 105-110

ISBN: 978-989-758-022-2

 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

which Catalan university system values teaching

activity at university and, consequently, what is

understood as teaching quality in Higher Education.

Finally, it connects CIRAX experiences with the

previous sections. Thereafter, in the last section we

remark the most important experience outcomes and

show some final thoughts in order to suggest future

lines of action.

2 TEACHING ACTIVITY IN

HIGHER EDUCATION

In Spain, university faculty has three tasks: teaching,

research and management. Two of them are not

always easily separable: one linked to the teaching

and learning process and the other one tied to

deepening their own knowledge. For this reason, it is

said that university professors have to deal with a

dual identity: one related to being a specialist in the

field of science, and the other, to be a specialist in

the development of teaching-learning processes in

the same discipline (Fernández, 2011); (Peña Calvo,

2012); (Zabalza, 2009). Despite the fact that these

basic tasks are known, they are not differentiated or

understood as they should be. For that reason,

working with these two identities is not a simply

task.

In the context of Higher Education, professional

identity of academic staff has been analyzed from

multiple perspectives, but not many of them study

the university professors' teaching concepts or their

feelings regarding this activity (Badia, 2011).

Sancho (2001) classifies the characteristic traits

of Spanish academic staff. According to her study, it

is, for example, common to hear about research

teams, it is not so common to hear about teaching

teams. Another characteristic is that teaching at

university is often reduced to be rather private in

nature. In general, most teaching activity remains

between professors and their students and educative

projects are usually accepted without revisions or

external controls.

EHEA’s (European Higher Education Area) aim

is to improve the quality of their programs and

degrees. Its main goal is to ensure the quality of the

education offered, in order to cope with a fast

growing and internationalized higher education

demand.

The problem, then, lies in the definition of a

teaching community at university, its members and

their operational dynamics within the European

Higher Education context.

Marin (2004) argues that relationships formed by

a university professor both with students and

colleagues are probably the elements that most

strongly affect teaching, especially during the period

of induction to professional practice. This is because

these relationships help to determine methodologies,

beliefs and attitudes towards the university in

general, and in particular, in relation to the

development of their work.

In this context, Mas Torelló (2011) indicates that

although university professors work for the highest

level of educational institution that exists, mostly of

them are not trained in teaching. They enter the

university system after learning about their chosen

field of study in higher education institutions,

without receiving any teaching training.

These ideas are summed up by some authors,

like Marín (2005), Show-Gerono (2005) or Zabalza

(2009), who suggest that professional development

of teachers in the new university educational system

requires dialogue and collaborative work, as a

training that enhance not only teaching skills, but

also the whole person, both personally and

professionally.

As Zabalza (2009) pointed out, regarding

teaching “it is imperative that (the people who teach

at university) have to be satisfied with their salary

levels, prospects for promotion and treatment, the

intellectual challenge of research the pleasure of

teaching and emotional quality of communities of

practice in which they work” (Knight, 2005).

Sancho-Vinuesa (2013) claims that a local policy

framework is established and it can help to define

professional identity regarding university teaching.

Nevertheless, an adequate teacher training, a system

of incentives, an appropriate recognition criteria and

values of quality and prestige, would allow to shape

it. Therefore, a definition of various profiles, a

weighted system of incentives and appreciation of

teaching could definitely contribute to the review the

professional identity of university faculty (Sancho-

Vinuesa, 2013). This framework should promote

teamworking, sharing experiences and peer review,

basic elements for the quality of educational system.

3 SENSE OF COMMUNITY

There are different definitions of “community” and

“sense of community”. Rovai (2002) points out that

community dimensions depend on specific context.

Likewise, there are some aspects which are basic for

members of any community: mutual

interdependence, sense of belonging, linking

“relationship”, spirit, trust, interactivity, common

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expectations, shared values and goals, and co-lived

stories. Specifically, the same author argues that

members of a group have feelings of belonging,

confidence and have obligations to others and to the

institution. Of course, they have a shared conviction

that the educational needs of all members will be

met through their commitment to shared goals.

King (2003) points out that “professional

identity” is a key element with which analyses the

factors that influence resistance to change in

institutional contexts.

Beyond the factors that explain the involvement

of people in institutional innovation, which has been

analyzed from multiple perspectives (Shaninina,

2003), it is interesting to know the reasons why

some people remain committed to innovation and

sustained change in shape and others are not.

Sharratt (2003) states that sharing knowledge within

a community reflects a moral obligation, which

corresponds to a personal feeling more than other

factors. Consequently, if there is a “community”, the

sharing of knowledge would be stronger when the

sense of community is stronger. Davis (2010)

considers that altruist sharing is not enough by itself

and needs to be accompanied by more pragmatic

selfish motives.

In this context, on the one hand, we wonder

whether a definition of a community and

professional identity of university professors in the

sense of teaching and learning process is possible.

On the other hand, we think that advantages of

sharing need to be integrated by the community in

its day-to-day teaching practices, in order to

reinforce a sense of community belonging and

motivate exchange and dialogue between members.

4 REPOSITORIES AND

SHARING ENVIRONMENTS

The introduction of ICTs has had a very direct effect

on the format of educational resources and the way

that they are stored and distributed.

Governments and educational institutions have

devoted much effort in the development and

implementation of institutional repositories, but not

much in assessment in relation to the participation of

teachers. There are some recent studies (Davis and

Connolly, 2007); (Davis, 2010) that have analyzed

the low usage in terms of content and participation

in the service offered from university libraries. It is a

fact that this poor use of institutional repositories is

not only a local concern, but there are some

questions that are valid, wherever the learning

repository is: institutional, local or global, thematic

or by discipline. In this section we identify the

factors that influence in the participation and

resource sharing in the Catalan university system,

focusing on the variety of repository strategies,

professors’ behaviour and organisational structures.

While there is a widespread use of educational

platforms, preservation strategies of teaching

materials are diverse, and rarely both environments

have been joined or integrated to facilitate

exchanges between the repository and the virtual

classroom or platform. In this sense, we realise that

there are two environments managed by different

actors and focused on different aims. Learning

management systems are managed by lecturers

themselves in order to connect resources and

students, and repositories are managed by librarians

and serve preservation and informational needs.

According to different authors (Davis, 2007);

(Bueno de la Fuente, 2011), the success of projects

such as educational repositories often involve

different strategies, both human and cultural. The

review conducted by Bueno de la Fuente and

Hernandez (2011) exposes different factors that

determine the success of an institutional repository

with learning resources: conceptual and pedagogical,

human and cultural, political and organizational,

legal and technological. Repositories that can be

divided by collections need not only allow

depositing resources, but provide a favourable

environment to enhance dialogue and

communication.

This explains why in the framework of projects

which promote the sharing of open educational

resources, different models of organisation have

been described. While the technological tool could

be similar, attitude and its integrative dynamics can

produce organizations that differ according to the

presence of a collaborative goal. On the one hand,

the social network becomes a meeting and exhibition

space for its users. On the other hand, the

community of practice goes beyond coexistence in

space and is characterized by collaborative and

common goals of its members (McAvinia and

Maguire, 2011). Both phenomena are interrelated or

lived separately.

In addition, these communities of practice among

teachers become stronger when they are based on a

specific theme or built from personal relationships

(EdRene, 2010). In other words, a criterion is needed

that groups the actors in the community and acts as a

common goal, in order to increase the perception of

belonging. Some open educational resource projects

also include a community coordinator who also has

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expert insight into the discipline. Other projects let

librarians lead communication tasks and stimulate

collaboration.

In our study, we consider the fact and the

desirability of sharing resources and teaching

experiences. The next section will show how

organizational and institutional factors take part in

sharing culture, and show how they may influence

teaching quality.

5 TEACHING QUALITY

In general, management, participation or

membership innovation teaching groups or projects

is viewed favourably for Catalan universities

However, aspects of collaboration or cooperation

between the members of these groups or projects are

not specially valued in most of them. The situation is

the same regarding the publication of educational

resources in the institutional repository, which is not

mandatory for most of Catalan universities.

Creation of teaching materials, developing

specific experience with teaching methods or be the

author of teaching-learning process documents is

recognised by Catalan universities, but not in the

same way in all institutions. For example, only one

of these universities clearly sets out the creation of

multimedia resources, another university appreciates

the use of own resources and only one university

takes into account the fact that resources can be

shared or reused in some sense.

Each Catalan university has its own virtual

platform that professors can use for their teaching

activities. Although some universities encourage

professors to use them, only one of the universities

considers and consequently positively values the fact

that resources stored on these platforms can be

shared, used for collaboration or reused.

Few Catalan universities recognize the worth of

openness and accessibility of teaching material to

others via a virtual space and only one university

contemplates the idea that this material could be

shared. Moreover, the system of assessment of some

universities does not value the use of educational

platforms as a repository of educational material or

for outreach publications.

It is clear that the common aim of sharing and re-

use of resources such as teaching materials, and

collaboration between professors to enhance them

goes beyond what professors and departments can

achieve themselves. The resources, designed and

used by professors, are the common point of

collaboration. University establishes the common

structure of a course and a specific team teaches the

lectures. All of these entities would have to go in

one direction and recognize the same practices.

6 CIRAX EXPERIENCES

Through the CIRAX pilot experience, which

involved 150 people (lecturers, librarians and IT

staff) we confirm and justify several of the ideas

discussed above. They allow us to think that a sense

of professional identity and a sense of community is

the key to collaboration among university professors

and, consequently, to enhance the quality of teaching

in the European High Educational context.

According to Academic Library Consortium of

Catalonia (CBUC) librarians, most professors have

been reusing teaching and learning resources in a

spontaneous and uncontrolled way. This perception

is shared by professors, who recognised that they

have generally shared materials among department

colleagues, and above all, colleagues of the specific

course. Both, librarians and professors, assume that

in general professors have a strong sense of

ownership of their own teaching resources.

Moreover, it is claimed that educational materials

differ from scientific publications because the first

one is alive and is never closed. These facts confirm

that cultural factors can play an important role in

enhancing or inhibiting sharing.

The diffused information through CIRAX that

sparked more interest in professors was related with

the announcement of new resources hold in CIRAX

and related with the recognition for the material hold

in CIRAX which caused more expectation during

the pilot experience. These facts allow us to think:

a) Professors are interested in knowing possible

new resources for their teaching activity and they

are grateful for an easy way to finding them out.

b) Recognition for teaching work, in terms of

developing or sharing teaching resources

encourage lecturers to create, use, reuse, modify

or collaborate on teaching materials.

Most of professors involved in the CIRAX

experience complained that they do have not enough

time to explore new platforms or resources. For this

reason, they would appreciate more transversal

teaching resources, which will make research easier

and faster. To achieve information retrieval, it is

necessary to have a system that is both robust and

flexible, but in the pilot, professors claimed that

thematic classification is crucial.

From interviews to professors carried out during

the project and from a final questionnaire, professors

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involved in the CIRAX experience emphasise that

teaching resources should remain bounded in a

specific and reduced context around the topics of

their courses of subjects. They require a small

environment for colleagues that share the same

interests and work on similar topics.

As stated above, in Spain, teaching resources are

not revised in the same manner as research papers.

In relation to this, through the CIRAX pilot, we

detected that professors who wish to reuse materials

require a teaching guarantee of shared resources.

However, during the I CIRAX Day final roundtable

a great number of authors of materials claimed that

revision of this material is not necessary. Autocratic

and self-revision could be useful instead, as well as

simple exposure to maths community. Thus, in order

for all professors to share and collaborate, focusing

on enhancing materials, an agreement regarding this

will be necessary.

7 CONCLUSIONS

Open Educational Resources and Teaching Practices

in Europe 2013 show that in the European Higher

Education context, collaboration and sharing are

fundamental practices. They allow the enhancement

of teaching activity and, therefore, the learning

process and professional development.

After the CIRAX pilot, we realised that despite

the fact that these practices are accepted by most of

the higher education staff, there are some barriers,

mostly cultural, which do not facilitate the

collaboration and sharing to take place. Nowadays it

is still difficult for university staff to share or reuse

teaching resources and, consequently, collaborate

with each other, especially when they come from

different institutions.

Collaboration requires a specific and well-

defined community to succeed, where each member

has a clear idea about his or her professional

identity. What faculty have to do in order to be an

excellent professional? Regarding to this, the

recognition and value of teaching practice as well as

the definition of a professional career in a Higher

education institution becomes a key factor. To

incorporate mechanisms for the evaluation of

teaching (relatively standardized through

universities from Catalan system) as well as

incentives, not only economical, but in prestigious

sense for teachers in their daily dedication in

teaching, and encourage teamwork like in scientific

field. These strategies could support professional

identity and enhance community collaboration.

Altruism, recognition and prestige are basic

elements for collaboration, but they are not possible

without a main element. This is the identity, the

feeling to be part of a (specific) community.

Achieving this objective goes further than only a

feeling. Sharing and reusing requires a stronger link

than just to have common goals. It requires a

stronger level of support and help. In addition,

evidence from this pilot study points out that

professors’ engagement does not happen on its own.

Diffusion and communication activities are elements

that reinforce this engagement, like a Community

Manager in other social networks.

In a nutshell, two factors are identified in order

to guarantee a real collaborative work among

academic staff: a) the definition of a professional

identity in the case of faculty members; b) the

existence of a specific community which share

knowledge, values, expectations and goals. If

professors know that teaching activity will be

assessed and recognized, and they belong to an

active teaching community in a specific area, there

will be the basis for a teaching which follows the

quality standards on research activity: peer review,

openness and teamworking.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The project described here was funded by the

Catalan Government and carried out by an

interdisciplinary and interuniversity team of faculty

and specialists in the development of technological

tools for learning. We would like to express our

most sincere gratitude to all people who have taken

part in the project at any level.

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APPENDIX

Each Catalan University has its own Manual

d’Avaluació Docent (MAD) that specifies which

teaching activities are recognized. The Agencia per a

la Qualitat del Sistema Universitari de Catalunya is

responsible to set up common criterion and validate

each MAD.

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