SECONDMENT REPORT ELON UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING & THE INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OFFICE Â OCTOBER 2018 JORDAN KIRKWOOD For the attention of Alison Levey, Deandra Little, Leigh-Anne Royster, Brooke Barnett and Peter Felten. This is a report on my secondment experience at Elon University for the summer months from July to the beginning of October 2018. The following reflections are a collection of thoughts over my time, pulled together in this summary for the purpose of painting a picture of my time here in the United States. I have addressed it to both managers and involved persons at Aston University and Elon University. My general reflection on Elon; my time here, the experience gained and the people I've developed professional and social relationships with is wholly positive. The project that I have been carrying out throughout my secondment has grown and evolved, moving from one phase to another, and I would like to think I have, too. It has provided both ample opportunity and challenge, insofar that I have had the privilege of working with a great team, conducting interviews with over 50 individuals from across the organisation with a wealth of diverse experiences, and had to contend with the more academic elements of that too, such as coding and synthesising data. This has pushed me out of my comfort zone, which I would describe as 'preferentially holistic', and made me think, operate and navigate both the holistic and the detailed elements that have unfolded throughout the project. The project involved mapping professional development across the University for faculty and staff, with a lens of diversity, inclusion and equity. Deandra, Leigh-Anne and I worked through developing the interview questions under broad themes and putting together an interview list. I interviewed over 50 people at the University and wrote up the discussions ready for phase two. We organised two 'lunch and learns' - a member check to discuss some preliminary themes with two groups of 8-10, from the pool of interviewees. This was a fun exercise, something that progressed swiftly considering the scale of the interview phase; everyone had a different perspective on professional development or story to tell. Phase two of the project was much more challenging, there was much deliberation and, at times; consternation as I struggled not to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the coding exercise ahead. Deandra, Leigh-Anne and I collaborated to work out what we were looking for, what we wanted to analyse and what we envisioned the end product would look like. The project evolved into an internal report and recommendations for the University, something that was shared in a meeting with the University President across the institution, as well as a research paper on our findings, something that will continue over the coming months as we write up.
SECONDMENT REPORT
Something that I didn't envisage experiencing was the level of collaboration that I was able to be a part of at Elon. The University has a genuine lived experience in community and collegiality, and that was something that was a constant presence throughout my work and experience at the institution. I feel that I have been stretched in many ways, developing a greater aptitude for gathering, organising and synthesising large amounts of qualitative information in the context of a project and institution. This is something that will be hugely transferable in my future work, as it has also strengthened my time management skillset and ability to more accurately ascertain an appropriate level of time, commitment and priority for a given project or situation. Moreover, the project and highly relational nature of the work has granted me a more refined skill in working across an institution with a multi-faceted stakeholder pool spanning a wide variety of contexts. Speaking to the all-around experience on this secondment, I have only praise and thanks for a fundamentally challenging, exciting and welcome experience. It was great getting to experience living at the Isley International House living with great housemates and a nervous dog, as well as living in the 'visiting scholar' apartment for the latter period of my secondment. I was involved and took part where I could, got to see musical review show and a comedy show, visit multiple cities across North Carolina, swing from trees in Greensboro and make some great friends here. Thank you everyone for making it possible.
Yours sincerely, Jordan James Kirkwood