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Setting the stage
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Issue Date
2016-06-01
Editor
Authors
Hamilton, Doug
Márquez, Pedro
Agger-Gupta, Niels
License
Subject
Pedagogy
Royal Roads University
Royal Roads University
Abstract
A university’s institutional identity is a way of describing the culture of
an organization related to the collective meanings associated with “shared
attitudes, values, goals and practices” (MacDonald, 2013, p. 153). As such,
articulating an institutional identity can be an important tool for promoting
organizational sense-making, encouraging institutional affiliation,
supporting change management efforts, and shaping long-term identity and
culture (Stensaker, 2015; MacDonald, 2013).
Over the last 30 years, the post-secondary environment has become highly
competitive (Bok, 2003). As a result, universities and colleges constantly
seek ways to differentiate themselves and help potential students understand
their institution’s unique strengths and characteristics. Nevertheless,
communicating key aspects of an institution’s educational identity can serve
many more purposes beyond supporting competitive marketing and recruitment efforts. In addition to framing a message to prospective students,
an explicit articulation of the institutional identity connects current students,
faculty, and alumni, and is helpful to those responsible for representing the
university to funding agencies, accrediting bodies and other governmental
agencies, research grantors, and philanthropically-minded individuals and
groups. A clear understanding of institutional identity is helpful in making
sense of both internal and external organizational dynamics and changes,
supporting the development and reinforcement of an organizational image,
supporting further organizational innovation and creativity as well as
fostering and promoting employee and constituent engagement (Stensaker,
2015).
The articulation of this identity via the development of an “institutional
educational framework” can assist faculty, staff, and senior administrators
in a university in describing or articulating the characteristics related to
learning and teaching that are most relevant to the unique educative mission
of their institution. Articulating a common and institution-wide
understanding of the unique mix of history, learning approaches,
curriculum, teaching strategies, and educational practices that give rise to
a particularly institutional identity is a laudable exercise. Many efforts to
help define these characteristics happen at the school, program, or faculty
level, where prospective students often engage in their own comparative
analyses. At the institutional level, however, recruitment and public relations
departments are often charged with the responsibility of communicating
the institutionally unique characteristics to prospective students, industry
representatives, and community partners, which means that an institutionalwide
articulation strategy has the potential for increasing the reach of
engagement and involvement within the institution.
In the first part of this chapter, we describe the attributes of institutional
education frameworks, explore the reasons why such frameworks exist, and
articulate the benefits of developing them. Next, we present the Royal Roads
University Learning and Teaching Model (2013) as an example of an
institutional framework and describe the model’s rationale, core
characteristics, development process, and some of the key lessons learned in
its implementation.
Description
While numerous institutions across the globe are currently developing institutional educational frameworks to improve student outcomes, experiences, and success, scholars have long lamented mismatches between theory and practice. In this book, educators and scholars describe how they implemented Royal Roads University's Learning and Teaching Model in practice, illustrating how educational theory translates to practice.