Practitioner Reflection

Educational development is a useful mechanism through which both the successes and challenges of higher education pedagogy can be viewed. In this chapter I reflect on my experience supporting institutions interested in transforming their teaching to be more student-centered and equity minded. I describe the virtues of a truly liberally structured education, and the mechanisms reformers and institutions can consider to ensure that all students are able to have that experience. For this to occur several high-level changes are crucial. First, a deeper understanding is necessary to identify how instructors can navigate context to help more students attain their potential. Second, a tighter connection is needed between institutional proclamations and the activities they fund and support. Third, a bolder reframing of the role and value of Centers of Teaching Excellence is needed. I reflect on the ways in which these principles arose from my engagement with diversely structured institutions, with suggestions for a path toward true pedagogical transformation.