Dear John and LDHENers

I have just read your post about 'advice' and 'advisors/advisers' with
interest. Perhaps in thinking about this question you would also find
the parallel of careers advisors in the UK of interest. Many careers
services in the UK have changed their names in the last decade away from
the traditional 'Careers advisory service' with 'careers
advisors/advisers' - to careers centres or similar, with career
consultants or similar. This has often been due to discomfort with the
term of 'advice' and the implication that by going to a careers service
you might be lucky enough to be 'told what to do' with your future. 

Having said this, I work for a CETL closely linked to the Reading
Careers Advisory Service (not changed!) who recently consulted students
about their name and found that many liked the term 'advice' and
'advisor'. Whether we think this is because of the underlying attraction
of the idea that someone else will sort your life out for you, or
whether it's because 'advice' really is a useful and helpful term, I
leave for you to decide! 

All best wishes and happy Christmas!

Julia 

Julia Horn
Centre for Career Management Skills
0118 378 7879
[log in to unmask]
www.reading.ac.uk/ccms
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Hilsdon
Sent: 19 December 2007 02:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: What we are called - and our international voices ...

Dear All

Here's hoping to provoke some thought and mulling over - perhaps along
with a seasonally festive glass of mulled wine ... ?

I have had the privilege to be in New Zealand over the last month and,
along with having a really fabulous holiday, have met lots of colleagues
in the Learning Development field here. I've taken part in some very
interesting discussions and meetings both at the ATLAANZ conference (see
http://www.atlaanz.org/ ) and at several HE institutions I've visited.

Many of the debates, issues and research interests we pursue through our
roles and via LDHEN / ALDinHE and the LearnHigher CETL, are being
similarly pursued in NZ - and my impression is that LD work in NZ is
often better established and more advanced than in the UK.

One thing of the things that has struck me whilst here is that, although
the phrase 'Learning Development' is used (and has been fought for in
very much the same way that we have fought for it above terms such as
'Learning Skills' in the UK) the terms 'learning advisor' and 'learning
advice' are more often used as a job and/or unit/service titles.

Whilst my view remains strongly that our work and our field of practice,
study and research is best described as Learning Development,
nonetheless, from a student point of view - and indeed from the point of
view of academics and others outside of our own profession, it may be
that 'learning advice' and 'learning advisor' are more readily
understood and helpful phrases.

Many of you will also be aware of the Australian and American groups and
organisations with similar interests to our own: In Australia there is
the Association for Academic Language and Learning (AAL - see
http://aall.anu.edu.au/) and the forum 'Unilearn'
(https://academicskills.anu.edu.au/las2005/homepage/unilearn.pdf ) and
the US has the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA -
http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/ ). All of these groups have longer histories
than LDHEN - though I think I am right in saying that ours has been the
most active and widely participated in discussion list in the field
since about 2005.



In most of the institutions represented in the Australian, NZ and US
groups, the terms learning 'advice' and 'advisor' are pretty common. In
the first instance, I'd welcome hearing what folks think about the
'advise' 'advice' / advisor' word(s). (I prefer Learning Advisor to
Academic Advisor, I must say.)



More broadly, I am interested in fostering closer links with our
sister/brother groupings abroad - and at ATLAANZ some of us discussed
the possiblilty of working towards a joint international conference in
future. We clearly have many of the same concerns - especially around
how students experience and make sense of learning; and with the
increasing globalisation and commodification of higher (or tertiary)
education, we face some of the same risks - eg de-skilling (non-academic
contracts); out-sourcing of our work under the guise of 'restructures'
and 'efficiencies'; substitution of poorly conceived 'e-learning' or
'independent' learning for well-resourced learning development and
advice programmes ...



At least one of our NZ colleagues (Fe Day from Auckland University of
Technology) is planning to attend the ALDinHE Symposium on March 17th
and 18th at the University of Bradford - so we should be able to take
things further there.



Food for thought? I hope you all enjoy a break over Christmas and look
forward to hearing more of your thoughts in 2008 - and to seeing as many
of you as possible in Bradford in March!



All the best



John



John Hilsdon

Coordinator, Learning Development
Chairperson of the Association for Learning Development in Higher
Education (ALDinHE): http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth
PL1 8AA

UK