The term ‘Third Space’1 describes people working across and between the boundaries of traditional academic and professional roles in tertiary education.
 | The Third Space Symposium thanks our sponsor partner ATEM (Association for Tertiary Education Management) for their generous support of this event |
Who works in the Third Space?
Third Space Practitioners include learning designers, educational technologists, academic developers and many other people in roles with similar titles.2 Other people in the Third Space include workers in tertiary education who are developing the academic and language skills of students, research assistants and technicians, library staff and a wide array of other workers straddling these worlds.
While these roles have existed for more than 70 years, in many different forms, their value to their organisation and to the sector is often misunderstood, reducing these workers’ ability to effect meaningful change. Career progression, contracts and working conditions can be unstable or limited. The skills and knowledge that Third Space practitioners in professional roles bring may be questioned, and they are often blocked from contributing to research in their fields of expertise.
The Third Space Symposium and Slowposium aims to shine a light on the valuable contributions that Third Space practitioners make, examine the ways that we work together and consolidate practical actions to raise our impact and working conditions in tertiary education.
Third Space Slowposium,
Friday 15th to Sat 30th November 2024 –Online
This global asynchronous, online event will focus on people working in all areas of tertiary education Third Space, developing our understanding of all contexts. Participants will engage with an array of online resources informing discussion, debate and collaboration around the many factors which shape Third Space work.
Third Space Symposium,
Sunday 1st December 2024 – Uni of Melbourne, Australia
This face-to-face event will be held the day before the start of the 2024 ASCILITE conference at the University of Melbourne, focusing on the Third Space practitioners who enable teaching as academic developers, learning designers, educational technologists, and related roles. These Third Space practitioners can hold professional or academic positions, and their work frequently involves elements from both, making vital contributions to staff and student experience in higher education including:
- building the capabilities of the academic workforce in learning and teaching
- contributing to curriculum design
- designing and developing learning activities, resources and courses
- evaluating, implementing and supporting educational technologies
- advising educators and the institution about technology-enhanced learning and teaching
The morning will showcase participants’ experiences, research and ideas about working in the Third Space and the afternoon will be dedicated to actively working on ways to advance the standing, skills and conditions of Third Space practitioners.
Third Space Symposium
Suggested Themes
Roles and relationships
- What are third space roles and what do they do?
- What are our professional and ethical values?
- How can we expand understanding and valuing of these roles?
- Working together better within and across teams
- Working together better between central and faculty
- Working together better between roles
- Working together better with academics, leaders and others
- Social Capital and Relationship Building (McIntosh and Nutt)
- Collaboration – Collaborative Capital (Veles)
- Understanding Academics
- Getting on the same page as institutional management
- Identity Plasticity (Veles) – taking different shapes based on context
- What is a Third Space Identity? Are we fluid by Definition?
- Why are Educational Technologists so invisible?
- Differences between working in an academic or a professional role
- Is it possible to agree on consistent titles for roles? What are they?
Contributions of Third Space practitioners
- Third space practitioners in research
- Ability to participate in the wider L&T Third Space community
- Getting a seat at the table – Contributing to decision making
- Contestation, Reconciliation, Reconstruction & Transformation – changing higher education
- Measuring our contribution to learning & teaching to demonstrate value
Wellbeing and working conditions for Third Space practitioners
- Self-care and avoiding burnout
- Creating a supportive community
- Working with organisational structures and change
- Academic belonging in the Third Space – is it a ‘step down’?
- Differences between working in small and large institutions
- Lessons from working in different sectors – VET, Corporate, HE, Schools
- What different theories tell us about living and working in the third space
Professional and Career Development
- New options for Career Progression and Pathway (Sustainable careers – Veles)
- Developing Third Space Practitioners – Formal and Informal Training and Resources
- Showing your value: demonstrating expertise
- Developing confidence in your competence
- Recognition and Rewards
- Professionalisation and Accreditation – pros and cons
- Is writing in/for the Third Space different?
Overcoming challenges and effecting change
- Balancing Academic Freedom and Meaningful Change
- The Hierarchy of Knowledge: Content/Discipline, Pedagogical and Technological
- Enabling Research Collaborations in the third space
- Building resource collections
- Establishing Legitimacy
- Practical strategies for affecting change in organisations
- Options for professionalisation
- Working with organisations in the sector (e.g. NTEU)
- Whitchurch, C. (2008). Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62(4), 377–396. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2008.00387.x ↩︎
- Mitchell, K., Simpson, C., & Adachi, C. (2017). What’s in a name? The ambiguity and complexity of technology enhanced learning roles – ASCILITE 2017. In H. Partridge, K. Davis, & J. Thomas (Eds.), Me, Us, IT! Proceedings ASCILITE 2017: 34th International Conference of Innovation, Practice and Research in the use of Educational Technologies in Tertiary Education (p. 449). ASCILITE. http://2017conference.ascilite.org/program/whats-in-a-name-the-ambiguity-and-complexity-of-technology-enhanced-learning-roles/ ↩︎