Overview 

Our teaching and scholarship journey included our attendance at a Symposium, a Manchester-Melbourne University Partnership Panel Event and the Development Studies Association of Australia  (DSAA) Conference, which took place in Melbourne, Australia between 03 to 13 July. The central purpose of our visit was to further explore pedagogy and scholarship related to teaching senior practitioners working in the global sphere development at a master’s level, and then apply this to our online and blended learning programme, Master’s in Leadership for Development (ML4D). 

Background  

First, a few words about the background and history to understanding teaching practices, principles and concepts relevant to people working in the global development sphere.  

Our interest in transformative pedagogies emerged several years ago, with a group of staff from the Global Development Institute seeking to develop a new online and blended learning master’s programme for emerging leaders in the development field. This required significant investment and scholarship in developing the teaching and learning materials and the teaching and learning principles that would most suit the distinctive and complex nature of Leadership for Development. The programme was developed in partnership with the University of Melbourne, with the first cohort starting in Sept 2021, and graduating in Summer 2023.  

Journeying with the first and subsequent cohorts of emerging leaders helped us identify opportunities to share what we had learned about the distinctive and complex nature of leadership for development.  We wanted to reflect on the impact of the transformative pedagogy we had embraced: the importance of reflexivity, collaborative learning and scope for further scholarship particularly with academic and practitioners located in the global south. 

What we contributed to the events 

Out trip started with a day Symposium, reviewing the overall programme materials in the light of what we had learned about the distinctive context of leading in the global development field. This led into a panel event in which we worked to share our understanding of current scholarship in the field, identify gaps and develop a research agenda specifically related to teaching emerging leaders. Using this foundation, we then attended the DSAA Conference both presenting our own papers and learning from a rich variety of academic and practitioner panels.  

Natalie spoke about reconceptualising resilience. Developing resilience was seen as a key factor to be addressed for sustainable practices to be embedded. There is considerable difference in conceptualisation of the term resilience in the International Development field. This paper drew on practice and literature to categorise the conceptual understanding of the term. Recognition that resilience development requires a multi-level focus on individual and collective well-being, as well as understanding organisational structural resilience and further extending the definition of the term to systems being able to mitigate and recover from shocks and be less vulnerable – a broader integrated definition of resilience is developed. 

Jaco presented on the growing interest in Digital Transformation for Development (Dx4D) in the development field. Drawing on a survey of 45 Dx4D stakeholders, scholarly literature, and expert consultations, the presentation argued for the critical importance of leadership and associated dynamics within Dx4D initiatives. The study contributed five pivotal success factors pertaining to the human dimension of Dx4D. This research was directly done for developing learning materials and activities as part of the International Management and Leadership course unit on our ML4D – it directly led to a contribution towards appropriate curriculum content on digital transformation for development field leaders. 

Shirley presented a paper entitled Re-imagining the contribution of Higher Education in shaping global development leadership and community praxis. This discussed the internationalisation of higher education and specifically examined HEI programmes for people seeking to become development field leaders in international development organisations and agencies. This paper presents the findings of a study at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute (GDI) during 2023 to 2024 in which international development master’s students collaborated and co-created new forms of knowledge-sharing to enhance understanding of community-based praxis. This paper presents an account of the students’ experiences and shared learning in a co-created partnership with academics, university support staff and alumni- practitioners through an action-learning methodology.  

What we learned or gained from the events 

What resonated most for Natalie was that the intersectionality of leadership in the development field often draws leaders to much of the darker shadow side of society – exceptional poverty, corruption, exploitation of the weakest in society. Natalie left with a question are we truly preparing our leaders to deal with the impact of these factors on their personal resilience and coping mechanisms. Developing people as leaders needs a deep awareness of impact of contextual issues on self. 

Jaco was surprised by the lack of focus on digital development (the role of digital systems and technologies in socio-economic development) in research and teaching. Few, if any, Australian development studies programs include subjects or pathways that address this area. Informal discussions with DSAA delegates revealed that digital systems and technologies are often seen as outside the scope of development studies, which is primarily viewed as a social science discipline. This presents an opportunity to engage Australian colleagues on the socio-technical nature of digital technologies and their crucial role in shaping global development outcomes.  

What Shirley learnt from the conference delegates and student feedback was that those teaching and studying in the Global South found strong resonances in terms of challenges and opportunities international post-graduate students face. There was strong support to continue developing pedagogies that promote student agency and peer-knowledge-sharing and an awareness that this can have a ripple and decolonising effect within institutions own teaching, learning and student support systems. 

What’s Next

Natalie’s What’s Next was to implement and design a series of micro credentials in Resilience for the development field to be offered globally online. 

Jaco’s What Next focussed externally, to build and strengthen relationships with Australian HEIs, specifically creating opportunities to amplify digital development research and incorporating socio-technical perspectives in development studies curricula. We’ve made a start with this in our joint ML4D programme.  

Shirley’s What Next was to work with the GDI employability Champions, to encourage them to further share their own stories and their student voice activities, for example in a recent GDI Blog entitled Student Voices-Championing Career success in GDI 

Summary and Thank You  

So, this was a very productive journey: sharing recent scholarship, learning with and from academics and practitioners. We have returned with new impetus for transformative pedagogy, new connections for further partnerships and a new commitment to publish a distinctive contribution about the nature and required knowledge, skills and abilities for effective leadership in the Development Field. Thank you! 

Shirley Jenner, Global Development Institute 
Research Profile
LinkedIn

Natalie Cunningham, Global Development Institute 
Research Profile
LinkedIn

Jaco Renken, Global Development Institute  
Research Profile
LinkedIn

Ref: 090