CTLC Staff

Tai joined the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Centre (CTLC) as a Senior Lecturer in January 2010. Before joining La Trobe, Tai spent 11 years at the University of Sydney and 18 months at the University of Melbourne working in academic development. She completed her undergraduate honours degree in Education, and doctoral work Learning and Becoming in Academic Development: an autoethnographic inquiry at the University of Sydney, the latter under the supervision of Professor Angela Brew.

Institutional work @ La Trobe

Tai works primarily with colleagues in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences supporting various strategic initiatives designed to advance Design for Learning, and sits on the Faculty’s Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Committee.  She also convenes the CTLC’s Scholarship of Learning and Teaching Research (SoLT) Network.

Teaching

At La Trobe, Tai teaches in the CTLC’s tutor training and Graduate Certificate programs. In 2011, she is Subject Coordinator for EDU4HET: Teaching in Higher Education: Effective Reflective Practice, the second semester core subject in the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Curriculum, Teaching and Learning.

Research

Tai’s broad research program focuses on elaborating a critical relation between teaching, learning, academic development, and changing ideas of the University. Her publications on academic development are focused on doctoral/research supervision development, key concepts and thinkers in higher education teaching and learning, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Her research interests also include academic practice, writing and identity, and reflexive research methodologies. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss research supervision in any of these areas.

 

In 2004, she co-founded the Challenging Academic Development (CAD) Collective– an international research group of over 100 educational developers interested in theorising the scholarship and politics of academic development. Their theoretical essays are featured in a Special Issue of The International Journal for Academic Development (IJAD) – Issue 12(1). Read about the CAD Collective at http://cadc.wordpress.com/ or join the list-serve at http://mailman.ucc.usyd.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/itl-cad.

Invited international keynote addresses

• Peseta, T. (2010). A meditation on the contradictory project of academic identity. Keynote address at the Academic Identities for the 21st Century Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, June 16-18.
• Peseta, T. (2009). For Whom Do We Write: The place and practices of writing in developing the scholarship of teaching and learning. Keynote address at The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL), University of Indiana, Bloomington, USA, October 22-25 (published in the ISSoTL International Commons Newsletter, January 2010, p.21-29).

Recent Publications (refereed and professional)

• Peseta, T. (2011). Professing in the field of academic development: is content a dirty word? (Opinion Piece). The International Journal for Academic Development, 16(1), 83-86.
• Peseta, T. (2010). On beginnings, desire and change in academic development. In S. Boon, B. Matthew & L. Sheward (Eds,). Creating a Profession – Building Careers in Educational Development, SEDA Special Issue 27, pp. 11-13.
• Peseta, T., Manathunga, C., Jones, A. (2010). What kind of interdisciplinary space is academic development? In M. Davies., M. Devlin & M. Tight (Eds,). Interdisciplinary Higher Education: Perspectives and Practicalities (pp. 97-111). Emerald Publishing, UK.
• Manathunga, C., Peseta, T. & McCormack, C. (2010). Supervisor development through creative approaches to writing. The International Journal for Academic Development, 15(3), 33-46.
• Kandlbinder, P. & Peseta, T. (2009). Key Concepts in Graduate Certificates in higher education teaching and learning in Australasia and the United Kingdom. The International Journal for Academic Development, 14(1), 19-31.
• Brew, A. & Peseta, T. (2008). Supervision development and recognition in a reflexive space. In D. Boud & A. Lee (Eds,). Changing Practices of Doctoral Education (pp.126-139). London & NY: Routledge
• Peseta, T. & Manathunga, C. (2008). The Anxiety of Making Academics Over: Resistance and Responsibility in the Academic Development Project. In I. Morley & M. Crouch (Eds.), Knowledge as Value: Illumination through Critical Prisms (pp. 79-94). Netherlands: Rodopi Press.
• Peseta, T. (2007). Troubling our desires for research and writing within the academic development project. The International Journal for Academic Development, 12(1), 15-23.
• Peseta, T., Brew, A., McShane, K. & Barrie, S. (2007). Encouraging the scholarship of learning and teaching in an institutional context. In A. Brew, A. & J. Sachs (Eds.), Transforming a University: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Action (pp: 223-231). Sydney, NSW: University of Sydney Press.

Download a list of Tai’s publications [PDF 55 KB]

Awards / Professional Recognition

• 2006 Award for Outstanding Educational Research (Doctoral Thesis) NSW Institute for Educational Research
• 2006 Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, Faculty of Economics & Business, The University of Sydney (co-awarded with Drs Amani Ahmed & Rosina Mladenovic)
  For excellence in the leadership, design and implementation of a faculty-wide tutor development program
• 2005 Teaching Excellence Award, Faculty of Education & Social Work, The University of Sydney (co-awarded with Associate Professor Simon Barrie)
  For being exemplary role models of the type of reflective practice approach to teaching around which the subjects are designed. They provide a safe, collaborative, respectful yet challenging classroom environment.
• 2003 Best Paper by a Research Student, The Australian Qualitative Research Association (co-awarded with Dr Kim McShane)
  Paper: On learning journals and researcher subjectivity in the PhD

Professional Service

Tai is part of the new 2011 editorial team of the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Journal (A rated) as Points for Debate Editor. She also sits on the Editorial Board for the journal Teaching in Higher Education (A rated). She was an Associate Editor for The International Journal for Academic Development from 2007-2010. She also served on the National Executive Committee of the Higher Education Research and Development Society Australasia (HERDSA) from July 2009-February 2011.