Transformative Teaching

Abstract

The Covid-19 outbreak has challenged educational conditions for higher education. Concepts such as ‘emergency remote teaching’ (Carrillo & Flores, 2020; Lee et al., 2021) appeared to understand the rapid response to educational institutions’ closures. Teachers and students had to cope with the demands of a teaching mode for which they were not prepared. Pre-pandemic studies reveal that, although digital technologies have occupied an increasingly prevalent role in education, establishing authentic and transformative digital technology practices has been problematic, especially given the varied and context-specific nature of teaching (Albion & Tondeur, 2018; Ibieta et al., 2017; Tallvid, 2016). This paper will present a professional development (PD) experience within a Chilean university context. In response to the rapid transition from in-person to online teaching, a department working with first-year undergraduate students created an innovation committee to support instructors on online teaching strategies, assessment methods and the use of digital technologies for teaching. This article combines the concepts of ‘innovation’ and ‘holistic reflexivity’ to consider both the views and conditions of the institutional ecosystem that can shape faculty decision-making (Freire, 2014; Lim et al., 2013; Michos et al., 2018). In this way, we propose a collaborative and reflexive idea of innovation among educators and institutional policymakers that connects the professionals’ practical context with theories and policies. Most faculty members share a vast disciplinary experience. However, more pedagogical expertise is needed to safeguard pupils’ authentic learning. Thus, the primary purpose of the innovation committee is to bring together faculty members’ knowledge about classroom reality, the theoretical knowledge of experts on pedagogical innovation and educational technology, and the vision of institutional policymakers on how faculty should teach in the digital age.