Navigating the Third Space: working well in tertiary education
A two-part event for university and further education workers who support teaching and learning
Part 1: Slowposium (online) and
Part 2: Symposium (face-to-face)
From 15 November to 1 December 2024
We will soon call for expressions of interest in presenting and running sessions at these events, as well as for volunteers to assist with the event.
The term ‘Third Space’1 describes people working across and between the boundaries of traditional academic and professional roles in higher education.
Who works in the Third Space? There are the people who might identify as ‘ed-advisors’: learning designers, educational technologists, academic developers and many other people in roles with similar titles.2 Other people in the Third Space include workers in tertiary education who are developing the academic and language skills of students, research assistants and technicians, library staff and a wide array of other workers straddling these worlds.
While these roles have existed for more than 70 years, in different forms, their value to their organisation and to the sector is often misunderstood, reducing these workers’ ability to effect meaningful change. Career progression, contracts and working conditions can be unstable or limited. The skills and knowledge that Third Space practitioners in professional roles bring may be questioned, and they are often blocked from contributing to research in their fields of expertise.
Navigating the Third Space aims to shine a light on the valuable contributions that Third Space practitioners make, examine the ways that we work together and consolidate practical actions to raise our impact and working conditions in tertiary education. For mutual learning and strengthening connections we will run a Third Space Slowposium leading up to the Symposium. This will include several activities designed for participation across a global audience to enrich the conversation during the Symposium.
Global Third Space Slowposium,
Friday 15th to Sat 30th November 2024 – Online
This asynchronous, online event will focus on people working in all areas of tertiary education Third Space, developing our understanding of global contexts and following the lead of the foundational work of UK-based researchers, in particular. Participants are provided with different modes of connecting in a shared online space including discussion topics, fun activities and an area for research visibility. The Slowposium is the opportunity to connect and ignite conversations for the Symposium. All registrants will have full access to all material and sessions during the Symposium.
Third Space Symposium,
Sunday 1st December 2024 – University of Melbourne, Australia
This face-to-face event will be held the day before the start of the 2024 ASCILITE conference at the University of Melbourne, focusing on the Third Space practitioners who enable teaching as academic developers, learning designers, educational technologists, and related roles. These Third Space practitioners can hold professional or academic positions, and their work frequently involves elements from both, making vital contributions to staff and student experience in higher education including:
- building the capabilities of the academic workforce in learning and teaching
- contributing to curriculum design
- designing and developing learning activities, resources and courses
- evaluating, implementing and supporting educational technologies
- advising educators and the institution about technology-enhanced learning and teaching
The morning will showcase participants’ experiences, research and ideas about working in the Third Space and the afternoon will be dedicated to actively working on ways to advance the standing, skills and conditions of Third Space practitioners.
Third Space Symposium
Suggested Themes
Roles and relationships
- What are third space roles and what do they do?
- What are our professional and ethical values?
- How can we expand understanding and valuing of these roles?
- How do Third Space practitioners work together? Within and across teams, between central and faculty, between roles, with academics and leaders, with other stakeholders?
- How can we work together better?
Contributions of Third Space practitioners
- Third space practitioners in research
- Innovation in learning and teaching
- Ability to participate in the wider L&T Third Space community
Wellbeing and working conditions for Third Space practitioners
- Self-care and avoiding burnout
- Creating a supportive community
- Working with organisational structures and change
- Whitchurch, C. (2008). Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62(4), 377–396. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2008.00387.x ↩︎
- Mitchell, K., Simpson, C., & Adachi, C. (2017). What’s in a name? The ambiguity and complexity of technology enhanced learning roles – ASCILITE 2017. In H. Partridge, K. Davis, & J. Thomas (Eds.), Me, Us, IT! Proceedings ASCILITE 2017: 34th International Conference of Innovation, Practice and Research in the use of Educational Technologies in Tertiary Education (p. 449). ASCILITE. http://2017conference.ascilite.org/program/whats-in-a-name-the-ambiguity-and-complexity-of-technology-enhanced-learning-roles/ ↩︎