The term ‘Third Space’1 describes people working across and between the boundaries of traditional academic and professional roles in tertiary education.
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 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 Symposium,
Ongoing, Online
This global asynchronous, online hub focuses on people working in all areas of tertiary education Third Space, developing our understanding of all contexts. Participants can engage with an array of online resources informing discussion, debate and collaboration around the many factors which shape Third Space work.
Third Space Symposium
Themes
Connecting: How we communicate with each other and build community in the third space
Identity: Who third space practitioners are: our roles, titles and values
Practice: The things we do working in the third space
Recognition: Demonstrating our value and raising understanding of our contributions
Relationships: Building better collaborations with the people we work with
Research: Developing better understanding of the third space and the people who work in it
Technology: The tools we use and the ways we use them
Workplace: The practicalities of being a third space practitioner
- 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/ ↩︎