Personal Reflection: Lessons from My Students and Other Reflections on SoTL

• Main Author: Kathleen McKinney
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Georgia Southern University 2009-07-01
• Series: International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
• Subjects: SoTL
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ij-sotl/vol3/iss2/31

Excerpt: As I sit here in my office ‘chair,’ both literally and figuratively, I am reflecting on my relationship with the scholarship of teaching and learning. My thoughts wander to influences on my career in SoTL, the impact SoTL has had on my professional life, the dilemmas in the field that I continue to ponder, ways we advocate for and support SoTL work, and my hopes for the future of SoTL. As I write this, it occurs to me that I have been directly involved in SoTL for 25 years—a quarter of a century! This fact makes me feel both a little bit ‘old’ and very joyful. I confess that, initially, I stumbled into SoTL rather than having made a conscious, well-thought-out decision or choice to engage in SoTL; these would come later. I entered the field of SoTL through my discipline and local institution; making national-international and cross-inter-disciplinary connections would also come later.