by Yaz Iyabo Osho
Academic professional development (APD) has a central role in supporting teaching and learning in higher education. Through development programmes, workshops, resources, professional networks, and opportunities to share practice, colleagues are supported in developing their knowledge, expertise, and ideas.
I have long been interested in another aspect of academic professional development: what it can help us understand about educational practice, student experience, and the particularities of higher education institutions. When universities encounter challenges relating to inclusion, belonging, student engagement, or educational outcomes, how do we determine what kind of development or support is needed? What critically informs those decisions? Whose knowledge and experiences are considered? And what can we learn from what happens afterwards?
These questions underpin an approach I am developing as ‘Research-Informed Academic Professional Development’ (Research-Informed APD). My interest is in how academic professional development can contribute not only to supporting practice, but also to generating and connecting knowledge that informs educational decision-making and institutional learning.
The foundations of my thinking
Although I am now giving this approach a name, its foundations have developed over several years of my research and professional practice. Earlier in my career, working in widening-participation higher education contexts, I became increasingly interested in how students’ experiences could inform our understanding of engagement, progression and success. In my earlier writing on widening participation and enterprise education (Osho, nd), I argued for greater attention to institutional practices and approaches to teaching and learning, rather than focusing on perceived deficiencies among students.
This thinking continued through collaborative research exploring the experiences behind ethnic minority students’ attainment (Seuwou et al, 2023), alongside my own work on racialised awarding gaps and inclusive curriculum practices. Several of my studies were subsequently referenced in the University of Westminster’s Access and Participation Plan (2025–2029), contributing to the institutional evidence base for understanding educational inequalities and informing approaches to curriculum development and inclusion. Later in my career, my responsibilities as an EDI Lead brought together research, colleague development, inclusive and anti-racist pedagogy, curriculum enhancement, and evaluation.
More recently, moving into an institution-wide academic professional development role allowed me to consider these questions across different disciplines, professional roles and institutional contexts at scale. It also made me think more about how knowledge can be generated through educational practice. Looking across my work, I can see a consistent interest in understanding educational questions before deciding how best to respond. Research-Informed APD is the name I am now giving to an approach that has developed through this research and practice over several years.
Building on established scholarship
The idea that academic professional development should extend beyond individual activities is not new. Educational developers and researchers have long explored professional learning, reflective practice, inquiry, and the relationship between development and educational change. For example, Amundsen and Wilson (2012) conducted a conceptual review of the literature on educational and academic development and identified different orientations to practice, including institutional development, skill development, action research and inquiry. Their work invites us to consider not only whether development is effective but also the assumptions that inform its design.
Similarly, King (2022) considers how academics develop their teaching expertise over time, drawing on evidence, reflection and their experiences of practice. She highlights the importance of curiosity, community, and care, as well as the role of academic development and institutional cultures in supporting continued professional learning.
This scholarship provides a useful foundation for my thinking. My particular interest, however, is in the academic professional development function itself, and how we understand its contribution to educational practice and wider institutional learning. I am interested in what academic professional development can help institutions understand about their educational practices, beyond the programmes, resources and support it provides.
Towards Research-Informed Academic Professional Development
Research-Informed APD is the name I am giving to an approach that has emerged through my research, professional practice and reflections on the purposes of academic professional development. I am developing this line of thinking further in a scholarly paper that will examine its conceptual foundations and implications for academic professional development. For now, my proposition is that academic professional development should be recognised not only for the activities it delivers or the practices it supports, but also for the knowledge it can generate and the institutional learning it can enable. This requires us to look beyond responding to immediate educational challenges and consider what we might learn through the process.
Dr Yaz Iyabo Osho is a Reader and Director of Academic Professional Development at the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation, University of Westminster. Her research interests include inclusive and anti-racist pedagogy, academic professional development, CPD governance, belonging, and the experiences of Black students and academics in higher education. She is currently developing a scholarly framework for Research-Informed Academic Professional Development.