LITE Strategic Lead

This role is available to current employees at the University of Leeds only
0.2 FTE secondment at current grade for 3 years in the first instance (flexible working arrangements will be considered)
Are you interested in leading, developing and inspiring a community of scholars in a specific area of pedagogical research at Leeds? Are you looking to set an aspirational standard of teaching excellence and pedagogic scholarship?
We are inviting applications for three roles, LITE Lead for Student as Partners, LITE Lead for Design Thinking in SoTL, and, LITE Lead for Student Futures & Educational Gain, to join the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE).
The core aim of these roles is to ensure the embedding of their respective portfolios in the research activity of all LITE Incubators (see below) and LITE Fellowships, through developing and curating these approaches across all LITE Incubators and leading a research community of practice in their respective areas. Examples of activity within each of these portfolios are described below. This is a secondment position of 0.2FTE available to any University of Leeds staff (academic or non-academic), whose substantive role covers, at least, the period of the secondment. The period of the secondment into this role is initially 12 months. Following a review, successful post-holders will be confirmed for further 24 months. The Head of School/Service support needs to confirm availability for the whole 36-month period.
LITE: The Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE) embodies the University's commitment to excellence and innovation in education as its Research and Development function in Student Education. It achieves its goals through conducting strategic educational research, supporting and developing a community of Fellows and research communities of practice embedded in the Leeds community, and through events and activities for the Student Education Community.
The LITE Incubators:
As part of the LITE 5-yr Strategy "Fostering Student Education Success for All", LITE will develop 6 themed networks/communities of practice ("LITE Incubators") in areas of pedagogical/discipline-based educational research (PedRes/DBER) and/or scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Please note that LITE uses these terms (PedRes/DBER/SoTL) broadly defined and interchangeably. The initial six LITE Incubators will be in the areas of:
o Assessment
o Feedback
o Active and Experiential Learning
o Inclusive Education and Belonging
o Digital and Open Education
o Sustainability and Community Engagement
The LITE Leads for Student as Partners, Student Futures & Educational Gain, and Design Thinking in SoTL:
Following the LITE 5-yr Strategy "Fostering Student Education Success for All", LITE will promote research work in the areas of Student as Partners, and also, Student Futures & Educational Gain as part of the PedRes/DBER/SoTL activity in the LITE Incubators (please see a separate Candidate Brief for the roles of LITE Incubator Leads)
The LITE Leads for Student as Partners, for Design Thinking in SoTL, and, for Student Futures & Educational Gain, will work jointly with LITE Incubator Leads and LITE to embed approaches within their remit across all LITE Incubators.
Reporting to the Director of LITE, and working closely with the LITE Head of Research and the LITE Head of Operations, you will apply your leadership skills to develop and contribute to LITE strategic research portfolio alongside your planning, analytical and evaluative skills and experience to oversee the success of PedRes/DBER/SoTL activity within the area of your remit. You will be a member of the LITE R&D Forum. LITE Leads are represented at the LITE Steering Board, overseeing the LITE Strategy and advising the LITE Director and Operations Team. Additionally, it is expected that you will develop your own research profile to influence PedRes/DBER/SoTL more widely at the University of Leeds.
Proposals are invited for LITE Leads in the remits described that are aligned with the LITE Strategy from all members of staff at Leeds (professional service, academic, technical, research and others), whose substantive roles span at least the period of this secondment.
Examples of activity within each portfolio:
These roles are meant to ensure the embedding of their portfolio in the PedRes/DBER/SoTL activity across LITE Incubators and Fellowships. Therefore, the emphasis is on the research design itself. For example, the LITE Lead for Students as Partners will support the wider LITE community in ensuring our research is, ideally, co-produced with students and reflects sound and inclusive practice in representing Student Voice. In some cases, it may be desirable that the research outcome also reflects a LITE Lead portfolio. For instance, that a new teaching activity designed as part of the research outputs is co-delivered with students in future. However, the focus of the LITE Lead activity will remain on the research itself.
LITE Lead for Student as Partners: Following the established literature in the field, this role will ensure that the research conducted by the wider LITE community (Incubators and Fellowships) is as much co-produced with students as possible and reflects sound and inclusive practice in representing Student Voice. This post will also play a major role in ensuring that student participation in our research is inclusive, ethical and equitable.
LITE Lead for Student Futures & Educational Gain: Following the established literature in the field, this role will ensure that the research conducted by the wider LITE community (Incubators and Fellowships) is guided by establishing the three pillars of the Leeds Curriculum in Student Education at Leeds. The focus will also be on ensuring that research outputs focus on delivering Leeds graduates aware and confident of their own learning journeys (i.e. "learning to learn", including "learning to evaluate my own learning"). This post, therefore, will play a major role in ensuring that the LITE community research and research outputs place a high value on metacognition and learner agency as central enablers of the Leeds Curriculum. In doing so explicitly, the role will seek that our research delivers innovative and embedded ways to measure and evidence Educational Gain.
LITE Lead for Design Thinking in SoTL: Following the established literature in the field, this role will ensure that the research conducted by the wider LITE community (Incubators and Fellowships) incorporates Design Thinking into research and research methods design. This post will play a major role in connecting the wider LITE community research and its outputs to Curriculum Redefined and the activity of the Learning Design Team.
To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:
Prof Gabriel Cavalli, Professor of Science and Engineering Education/Director of the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE)
email: G.Cavalli@leeds.ac.uk