HERDSA TATAL tales: Reflecting on academic growth as a Community for Practice

ABSTRACT

This chapter tells the story of 13 higher education (HE) practitioners (academics and academic developers) from 10 universities across Australia and New Zealand leveraging the COVID-19 disruption as a ‘disorienting dilemma’ that precipitated transformation from a Community of Practice (CoP) to a Community for Practice (CfP). The aim is to show how the group commenced as a CoP to ‘Talk About Teaching and Learning’ (TATAL) and support one another towards HE fellowships, and grew into a CfP that supports holistic growth that benefits each member based on their specific contexts, needs, and goals. With reflections woven throughout as evidence of transformation, the purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how an interdisciplinary, multiuniversity group has created and nurtured a sustainable CfP. Experiential learning and reflective practice models, which are underpinned by considerations of action research and collaborative autoethnography, support and account for insights into the transformative changes. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.