Dipping your Toe in the Water: Building Confidence, Community, and Capacity

Abstract

This chapter provides practical guidance for SoTL leaders seeking to build confidence, visibility, and scholarly community through engagement with the international SoTL literature, publications, and conferences. With particular attention to underrepresented regions and contexts where institutional recognition for SoTL may be limited, it outlines accessible pathways for engaging in SoTL as both a scholarly and leadership practice. Using the metaphors of ‘dipping a toe’, ‘wading in’, and deeper immersion, the chapter maps a developmental trajectory that includes identifying relevant literature, engaging with feeder publications, participating in professional networks, and sharing work through conferences and journals. It highlights relational and community-building practices—such as mentoring, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing—as important forms of SoTL leadership that extend beyond local institutional boundaries. The chapter also explores how institutional and regional supports, including libraries, teaching and learning centres, and professional associations, can be leveraged to sustain engagement with SoTL. Overall, it positions participation in the global SoTL ecosystem as a strategic leadership practice that builds capacity, amplifies diverse voices, and strengthens international SoTL communities.

Engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) can be intellectually, pedagogically, and professionally rewarding. Getting started, however, can be a challenge, especially for emerging SoTL leaders trying to foster or expand SoTL on their campuses. In this chapter, we suggest strategies for encouraging newcomers to dip a toe into the metaphorical SoTL waters. By starting small, those new to SoTL will have the chance to meet others and experience the welcoming nature of the field. This chapter introduces ways to help those in your discipline, institution, or country find SoTL literature (dip in a few toes), create a SoTL community (wade into the water), and eventually dive in by conducting and going public with their own SoTL research (Felten, 2013; Miller-Young & Chick, 2024).

Academics are experts in their own disciplines and are often deeply embedded in their terminology and methods. SoTL — by its very nature — is cross-disciplinary (Bunnell & McGowan, 2024; Cruz et al., 2024) and requires scholars to venture beyond their areas of expertise. It requires them to become novice learners once again. This might include engaging with new communities and audiences, adapting to unknown language and theories, and accepting research methodologies that differ – or in some cases contradict – their own. It is not uncommon for academics to feel uncomfortable or experience imposter syndrome when first engaging with SoTL (Abbot, 2024; Miller-Young & Chick, 2024).

Building SoTL confidence, community, and capacity does not happen in isolation; it requires intentional and iterative effort to cultivate a culture of trust (Moore et al., 2025). For SoTL leaders at any level, then, a central challenge is designing inclusive initial SoTL experiences. New researchers may worry about what “counts” as SoTL and feel pressure to engage in a full-length SoTL study to establish credibility. This chapter outlines strategies for leaders looking to introduce SoTL as a resource, a field of research, and an academic community and to help others get started. Throughout the chapter, we frame these activities not only as individual entry points into SoTL, but as leadership practices through which scholars and institutions cultivate capacity, visibility, and connection across diverse geographic contexts.

Dipping a Toe

An important first step into SoTL is to build confidence by engaging with existing scholarship. Burke (1941) likened this experience to entering a parlor after others have already arrived. The people standing in the parlor are engaged deeply in conversation and discussing unfamiliar issues such that it can feel challenging to enter — especially for academics who are used to having a voice in these spaces. As in this Burkean parlor, entering the scholarly conversation begins with listening to the conversations already happening.

Extending this metaphor, imagine for a moment that as a SoTL leader you are already participating in this parlor. You notice a colleague who has recently arrived and seems lost or uncomfortable. You can proactively invite them into the conversation and introduce them to other attendees, including those who share similar interests or are asking related questions. This is an important task for SoTL leaders — helping make the transition into SoTL welcoming and supporting new scholars in joining the conversation. This relational work—inviting, connecting, and orienting others—is a foundational form of SoTL leadership, particularly in contexts where formal structures or recognition may be limited.

Connecting new scholars with librarians is also a crucial step. Librarians can help your colleagues explore available materials and craft an effective action plan. A new SoTL scholar may feel confident searching within their own disciplinary environment, but searching in SoTL is different. Library databases, for example, typically divide work into disciplinary sections and subject headings, but SoTL exists within, outside, and between those spaces (Healey & Healey, 2023; MacMillan, 2018). Librarians will know the locally available resources and can assist in the search process. These resources can help you begin that process.

Searching for SoTL

Google Scholar is a useful place to start. This freely available search engine casts a wide net (Google Scholar, n.d.; Paperpile, 2025), searching across disciplinary silos which is essential for finding interdisciplinary SoTL work. Subscription-based databases, if offered through an institution’s library, can help bypass paywalls and locate resources more quickly. Interdisciplinary tools, such as Academic Search Complete, as well as education-focused databases, such as ERIC, also include SoTL literature. Google Scholar and other free databases, such as JSTOR and Academia.edu, provide a useful interface for searching and will return open-access content immediately. They do not, however, provide direct access to materials requiring a subscription.

Unlike other disciplines, there is no single location or set of keywords for finding all SoTL literature (MacMillan, 2018). Using keywords such as SoTL, DBER (discipline-based education research), and teaching and higher education, however, will help researchers limit their results to work within the SoTL context. Users should also experiment with keywords and databases to find SoTL resources relevant to their own teaching context, pedagogical questions, or SoTL journey. Keywords, for example, might focus on a specific type of intervention or strategy (e.g., game-based learning or pedagogical partnership) or a specific learning environment (e.g., library instruction or experiential learning). See Table 1 for techniques to help narrow the focus.

Table 1.

Refining your search

Another useful strategy when starting out is to browse SoTL journals. Many of these, such as Teaching & Learning Inquiry, the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, are diamond open access, meaning that there are no fees to publish in or read these journals (Bosman et al., 2021; cOAlition S, n.d.; Deakin, n.d.). This work often includes a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International license meaning that the work can be freely reproduced and distributed for non-commercial purposes with proper acknowledgement. These journals are often supported by institutions or scholarly organizations. The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), for example, is committed to the belief that “making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge” (TLI, n.d.). Browse articles in the latest volumes or search within each journal for topics in your area of interest, such as feminist methods or science identity and sense of belonging.

Citation Mining

Citation mining (also called citation chaining) can help you engage more deeply once you locate relevant research. This involves using one article, sometimes called the seed article, as a starting point or central resource for identifying additional related works. Researchers can move forward and backward in time, depending on their interests and needs.

Backward citation mining starts with examining the footnotes or references in the seed article. What works are these authors referring to, quoting, or in conversation with? Examine the in-text citations or footnotes as well as the references. You can also move backward in time to find what works inspired the article. Backward citation mining is especially powerful for locating high-impact literature that influenced the current conversation, sometimes called seminal works.

Forward citation mining similarly uses the seed article as a starting point and moves ahead in time to search for articles that have cited it after publication. This is especially useful when an article is at least two years old, as it takes time to be cited in scholarly literature. Figure 1 shows where you can begin citation mining in Google Scholar. Web of Science, a subscription-based database, also includes citation mining options.

Figure 1.

Citation mining in Google Scholar

Another strategy combines these two approaches. Identify a relevant seed article, look up the work that has impacted or shaped it, and then use these seminal works as the starting point for additional forward citation mining. This helps you locate articles that have cited a foundational work since its publication, showing how the concepts have been used and adapted. This will likely result in a wide range of articles, some of which will be at least partially related to your topic of interest. You can then read quickly through the titles and abstracts to narrow down the list and focus on a close reading of articles that are most relevant to your research.

Here is one final note on citation mining. Unlike other disciplines, SoTL research does not always cite the same foundational articles (Healey & Healey, 2023). Therefore, citation mining is a useful, but imperfect, strategy for finding and immersing yourself in SoTL literature.

Reading Broadly

Becoming familiar with the Burkean parlor is a great way to begin a SoTL journey and build confidence. By reading broadly within SoTL, you may find new ideas for addressing a learning problem you are facing, discover a new word for something you are already doing in the classroom, or locate scholars who share similar interests. Together, intentional searching and citation mining provide effective starting points for locating SoTL work which is especially useful as you help others begin their SoTL exploration.

Wading in the Water

In his chapter, Geertsema (2026) wrote that academics, by virtue of their disciplinary identity, are part of a larger research community and familiar with the public nature of those interactions and collaborations. By contrast, the teaching component of an academic career is mostly performed in solitude within a local context and behind closed classroom doors (virtual or physical). While the last section offered concrete suggestions for dipping your toe in the water and helping others do the same, this section explores strategies for moving beyond this initial stage and building community. These include institutional-level efforts to develop your SoTL leadership, create mentorship and peer learning opportunities, foster safe spaces to learn and practice, and support other academics throughout their SoTL journeys. They also encourage you to look beyond your own context, and develop networks and collaborative opportunities — both nationally and internationally — with other SoTL leaders and initiatives. For SoTL leaders working in international or under-resourced contexts, these community-building strategies can be especially powerful forms of leadership, enabling participation beyond local institutional boundaries.

Professional Development Activities

As a SoTL leader, you can play a key role in building SoTL communities and facilitating engagement for academics and third space professionals (Thorpe & Partridge, 2024). This can include introductory activities, such as presentations, reflective practice, and evaluation surveys, as well as guidance on ethics requirements, new technologies, and discipline-specific pedagogical strategies. There are many free resources you can use as a guide or encourage others to access, including Hopscotch 4 SoTL (Kennesaw State University, n.d.), Teaching Connections (National University of Singapore), Center for University Teaching and Learning (University of Helsinki), and Utrecht University Roadmap for SoTL (Meijerman, Kirschner, & Wijsman, 2025). Materials are typically modular (as opposed to sequential) allowing you, or other academics, the flexibility to engage in a specific topic, and at a time, of your choosing. You could also develop workshops or webinars that can be held online (synchronously or asynchronously), or serve as open educational resources (OERs), allowing you to expand your reach and impact as a leader nationally and internationally.

Journal Clubs

Building on the book club model, you can design journal clubs that provide structured opportunities for bringing colleagues together and fostering informal discussions centered on key ideas or emerging literature in the field of teaching and learning. These typically involve reading and discussing new publications and research or exploring innovative practices. Journal clubs provide opportunities for academics to engage with colleagues across disciplines, practice new pedagogical language, and gain exposure to diverse theories, methodologies, authors, and processes. This process is not dissimilar to classroom-based discussions which can offer a familiar entry point.

It is important to remember that journal clubs benefit from a learner-centric approach and should be based on the principles of adult learning (Eusuf & Shelton, 2022). You can encourage engagement through scaffolded guidelines, such as prompt questions (Miller-Young & Chick, 2024) or pre-determined key questions (University of York, n.d.). As a leader, you should ensure that expectations and conduct are clearly outlined ahead of time (Eusuf & Shelton, 2022), including shared responsibilities, such as voting on questions and selected readings or rotating presentations and meeting formats. Scheduling regular meeting dates well in advance allows participants to plan ahead and allocate time accordingly. You can schedule journal clubs in-person or online, although be mindful that online meetings may require experienced facilitation to maximize engagement.

Digital resources from existing journal clubs around the world can provide inspiration for getting started. See, for example, the University of South Australia Journal Club or the TU Delft Journal Club.

Conferences

Attending SoTL conferences, symposiums, and seminars — locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally — can provide an excellent pathway to develop and enact SoTL leadership and build networks. These conferences bring together SoTL scholars from different institutions and professional backgrounds to discuss and share ideas centered on improving teaching and learning. Conferences often host social programs to welcome newcomers, such as First-Timer Breakfasts or Buddy Programs. Volunteering to serve as a peer reviewer for conference submissions is an excellent way to learn about the process and how conference proposals are constructed. Encouraging colleagues to get involved as a group can further build SoTL capacity and community at your institution.

As a SoTL leader, facilitate conversations around exploring a conference program to seek out attendees from your own institution and connect ahead of time to expand your network. Many SoTL practitioners, including leading scholars, are committed to making the field as welcoming as possible and think seriously about the ways in which new researchers can engage with those more established in the field (Bunnell & McGowan, 2024; Cruz et al., 2023). As Geertsema (2026) writes, meeting these leaders in the field can be foundational to forming a SoTL identity.

You could consider hosting a teaching and learning conference at your own institution, such as the University of Rhode Island Innovative Education Conference, the University of Stellenbosch SoTL conference, and the University of Warwick Education Conference. These local conferences can be a very effective (and affordable) way to engage with SoTL at home which can foster collaborations grounded in a specific institutional context. Similarly, Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) in your geographic area can also provide a good starting point for identifying local options. To explore beyond your own context, attend or encourage those at your institution to attend regionally specific conferences, such as EuroSoTL and Latin SoTL, or global conferences such as the ISSOTL events that intentionally rotate locations annually to expand access.

As a transdisciplinary field, SoTL may or may not feel similar to home academic disciplines (Abbot, 2024; Bunnell & McGowan, 2024; Cruz et al., 2024). Some SoTL conferences focus on teaching and learning within disciplinary spaces, such as psychology or English. Attending this kind of conference can lower barriers to participating in SoTL because they align more closely with disciplinary norms. The number of national and international conferences has grown over the past decade, so helping academics at your institution identify and attend can provide a good starting point.

Some conferences offer virtual options, including SoTL Summit, an affordable annual SoTL conference that is fully online. Alternatively, you can refer colleagues to curated lists of SoTL conferences, such as Kennesaw University’s Teaching Conferences, and the University of Connecticut’s list of SoTL Associations and Conferences to identify conferences relevant to your context and interests.

Peer Review of Journals

The above professional development activities and journal clubs are excellent ways for you to develop your own SoTL leadership and networks beyond your own institution, and to build capacity in others. Moving to the next step, from consuming SoTL to producing it, however, can still feel daunting and often results in inaction or academically productive procrastination (Westgate et al., 2018), particularly for newcomers. As a leader, you can address this at your institution by participating in, setting up, or leading mentoring programs that are structured, scaffolded, and intentionally focus on skill-building. This allows academics who are new to SoTL to progress toward research through incremental steps in a supported, inclusive environment.

The peer review process is one of the foundations of academic publishing (Goodin, 2024) and provides an important area for mentorship and developing SoTL capability. Becoming a peer reviewer allows emerging SoTL scholars to improve the quality of research and scholarly publishing, contribute to the development of the field, and build your own networks. The skills needed to review manuscripts effectively, however, are seldom explicitly taught and often rely on the disciplinary knowledge of reviewers. This skills gap is amplified in the cross-disciplinary field of SoTL, where few researchers feel confident that they have the necessary expertise to adapt their disciplinary knowledge. While most journals provide reviewer guidelines, these can be generic with limited opportunity to practice or receive feedback on one’s competence as a reviewer. Enrolling in peer review or editing courses offered by publishers, such as OAPA or Elsevier Research Academy, is one useful way to learn skills, but these often involve registration costs.

Establishing an in-house mentoring program within your institution, possibly in collaboration with a SoTL publication, is another option. The Peer Review of Journals Mentor Program <https://www.education.unsw.edu.au/news-events/news/building-sotl-skills> (University of New South Wales), for example, run in collaboration with Teaching & Learning Inquiry intentionally adopted a proactive approach. In this model, participants are guided through the process by a peer review mentor as they work progressively in small collaborative groups on real manuscripts provided by the journal. Recognizing that academics can improve their own work and skills by reviewing the work of others (Rosenbaum 2005) and drawing on Dewey’s (1938) learning by doing theory, the year-long model provides a safe, authentic environment to learn and, perhaps most importantly, to practice. After a series of introductory workshops conducted in small, cross-disciplinary groups, participants shadow more experienced mentors through the peer review process with real articles. They then graduate to writing and submitting their own reviews, often in pairs, with a mentor’s supervision.

Participants reported the benefits (Goodin, 2025) of seeing a manuscript as submitted to the journal and witnessing the developmental approach to constructive feedback, as well as participating in the entire editorial process, including revisions, resubmission, and a second round of review. Importantly, participants appreciated the scaffolded and supportive process as well as the sense of collegiality they found when working in cross-disciplinary groups. Those who completed the program now review for journals individually and serve as mentors. In addition, several have begun publishing their own SoTL work in blogs, conference proceedings, and journals.

Structured Collaboration

Collaborative Writing Groups (CWGs) provide a semi-structured environment and valuable opportunity for developing, mentoring, exchanging ideas, and collaborating with other academics from diverse countries, disciplines, and experience levels (Healy et al., 2013). Many groups explore non-traditional academic outlets, including podcasts, blogs, posters, and infographics (Huijser et al., 2024). They encourage participants to look across disciplinary, institutional, and national boundaries to find common ground and are often associated with professional conferences. Examples include EuroSoTL Collaborative Writing Groups and ISSOTL Collaborative Writing Groups.

Similarly, Communities of Practice (CoP) and Special Interest Groups (SiGs) provide small communities, usually cross-disciplinary, that are built around common themes. Many, although not all, engage deeply with SoTL and include educators with diverse levels of experience, seniority, and knowledge. Because of their size and collaborative nature, they can provide opportunities for less experienced academics to engage in SoTL as co-authors. Some institutions, such as Utrecht University and TU Delft, limit participation in CoPs or SIGs to their own campuses while others include external members , such as the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and SoTL Collaboratory. Introducing academics to these opportunities or creating something similar on your campus can help build SoTL capacity in tangible and measurable ways.

Diving In

In the companion chapter, Geertsema (2026) discusses the importance of local and international contexts in SoTL. This chapter has discussed multiple paths for expanding SoTL at your institution while keeping these contexts in mind, including finding and reading relevant SoTL literature from around the world, forming local groups to share ideas and learn together, and attending local, regional, national, and international conferences. The next step is to build capacity by diving in and encouraging academics to start their own SoTL projects, either alone or with colleagues!

Diving in can still encompass a diverse range of activities with a shared goal, as Geertsema (2026) noted, of promoting “sustainable educational change initiatives”. Many journeys into SoTL begin with a question or a problem (Bass, 1999; Bass, 2020). These might include asking what students are learning, what motivates them to work hard, or what students retain after a course ends. Faculty can ask if their strategies for facilitating new ways of thinking, questioning, and imagining — not just content acquisition — were effective or pose questions around helping students develop transferable skills.

Thoughtful teachers ponder these kinds of questions that often originate in a positive or negative experience in an individual classroom or emerge from conversations with colleagues about student learning objectives or curriculum reform. These lines of inquiry, however, do not live in one discipline or way of thinking, in a single methodology or location. They exist in an interdisciplinary space where individuals are encouraged to talk with and learn from scholars across departments, campuses, countries, and continents. SoTL is a welcoming community, in part because people join from different places and at all career stages. It is also self-perpetuating — most SoTL scholars remember their own journey to SoTL. They vividly recall the joy of meeting others with shared interests and a passion for improving teaching and student learning. They often pay this kindness back by mentoring those new to the field.

Depending on disciplinary background, past exposure to SoTL literature and research, and career stage, some faculty may be ready to dive in at this point, while others might need more scaffolding and support. Possible next steps include forming a faculty learning community (FLC) (Cornejo Happel & Song, 2020; Meijerman et al., 2023), including those described above, joining an ongoing SoTL research project, or developing a pilot study. Useful starting points include asking: What are the central research questions? How does this research fit with existing literature and contribute new knowledge? What are the proposed research methods? Who are the participants? What data will be collected? At what stage? How will it be analyzed? What are the potential implications of this work? Novice SoTL scholars can practice collecting and analyzing data, talk with colleagues about what can be learned from the data, and think through how it might be applied to other contexts. They can then reflect on the lessons learned and design a larger study.

Sharing SoTL

The next step is “going public” (Chick, 2018; Chick & Friberg, 2022; Felten 2013). This is an important way to become part of the SoTL community and, equally important, to contribute to the scholarly conversation around teaching and learning. It allows others to learn, adapt, and apply the work in their own contexts and perhaps to begin contributing as well. As a SoTL leader, you can raise awareness of these potential options for going public and encourage participation through incentives and rewards, including recognition.

Conferences

As noted above, SoTL conferences are a great way to discover and build your own capacity. This can start locally or regionally which is often more affordable and accessible. Conferences also provide an excellent opportunity for presenting SoTL research, receiving feedback, engaging in conversation, and identifying collaborators. Institutions can offer targeted writing support workshops (e.g., UNSW) and peer-guided drop-in sessions for colleagues that align with abstract submission deadlines.

In addition, disciplinary conferences increasingly offer opportunities to present on teaching and learning which can provide a way to connect SoTL work with existing professional activities. If these opportunities do not yet exist, encourage emerging SoTL scholars to volunteer to serve on a conference organizing committee and suggest a focus on teaching and learning within the discipline. This can be another way to build connections with others in a discipline who are interested in teaching and learning in higher education. Presenting posters or lightning talks are excellent ways to participate that may be more welcoming to newcomers. These types of presentations are often well-suited to works in progress and offer the opportunity to invite the SoTL community to shape research projects while they are ongoing.

Publishing

Low-stakes and feeder publications play a critical leadership role in the SoTL ecosystem by creating accessible entry points, particularly for scholars in underrepresented regions or institutions. There are a number of incremental, low-stakes ways to get started while building the skills to contribute longer pieces in traditionally rigorous outlets. In Australia, for example, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) highlights peer-reviewed scholarly publications as well as “contributions to professional bodies/communities of practice, activities of scholarly academic societies, peer review, teaching practice engaging the latest ideas, debates and issues” (n.d.). Academics can refer to equivalent education quality agencies specific to their own national and institutional contexts.

Writing a blog post can provide an excellent way to expand SoTL capacity. Blogs tend to have less stringent requirements, are shorter in length, are published more quickly, and can be easily linked to social media. Some are peer-reviewed while others are not. Many institutions have their own blogs or in-house publications, providing a familiar place to start before working towards national or international outlets for increased impact and reputation building.

Journals

Journals provide a range of opportunities for publishing SoTL research. There are a number of strategies you can share as a SoTL leader to help build awareness and engagement. A good starting point is to think carefully and critically about the audience: Where might your research have the greatest impact? Who do you most want to engage in conversation? If you teach an introductory history survey course to undergraduate non-majors, do you want to communicate with others teaching similar classes? Or are you most interested in communicating with faculty across disciplines who are experimenting with active learning or integrating new digital tools into the classroom?

Develop a list of your top three publications and spend time looking at the most recent volumes. Does your work fit with the overall topics you see in the journal? Does it contribute something new? Next, examine the journal description, focus and scope, and submission guidelines. Is there a word limit? Is there a prescribed structure, such as IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, and discussion), or preference for specific methodological approaches? Some journals prefer quantitative research versus qualitative or arts-based approaches, but others, such as Teaching & Learning Inquiry embrace methodological pluralism. Some journals require a theoretical framework while others, following disciplinary norms, encourage each author to determine what is essential for their project.

Within the journals you identify, select two or three relevant articles and read them carefully: How do they introduce the research question(s)? Frame an argument? Present data and findings? Pay close attention to formatting and citation requirements. Following these steps will increase the likelihood that journal editors will send the work out for review, return valuable feedback, and potentially accept the submission for publication.

Some journals that publish SoTL work are geographically focused, such as the Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, SoTL in the South, and SoTL Africa. Others center on specific disciplines, such as The History Teacher, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, and the Journal of Engineering Education, or pedagogical approaches, such as Active Learning in Higher Education. Some are designed for specific audiences, such as the International Journal for Academic Development or To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, while others draw together readers with shared interests, such as pedagogical partnerships (International Journal for Students as Partners) or digital pedagogy (Australasian Journal of Educational Technology or British Journal of Educational Technology).

Some journals are designed to mentor authors new to SoTL, such as Advancing Scholarship and Research in Higher Education (n.d.), which describes its ethos as “grounded in a relational approach that values empowering researcher development . . . in a spirit of generosity and kindness” (ASRHE, n.d.). A valuable resource for selecting journals is the Kennesaw Teaching Journals Directory that allows filtering by discipline and pedagogical interest.

Institutions, scholarly organizations, and journals also provide multimodal content that can be valuable for those exploring SoTL. There are a growing number of SoTL podcasts, including a series at the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University, the Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast, and Three Questions About Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary (Kupatadze & Abbot, 2021; Thompson & McSweeney, 2025). Teaching & Learning Inquiry expanded its Going Public section to include reviews of books, websites, podcasts, blogs, and open educational resources (OERs) with the goal of highlighting and expanding “the various forms SoTL can take” (TLI, n.d.). It also publishes shorter submissions, called SoTL in Process, designed to share reflections on SoTL, generate conversation, or present ideas in development as well as posters presented at the annual ISSOTL conference that can be submitted for peer review and potential publication. Highlighting and valuing these journals is itself a leadership act, helping to broaden whose knowledge counts in the global SoTL conversation.

Conclusion

Halpern (2023) recently called on SoTL scholars to expand the “narrative possibilities” with the goal of “problematizing rather than easily solving” the difficult and complex teaching and learning challenges facing higher education today (p. 1). We can begin to meet this challenge by encouraging faculty to dive into SoTL. None of us became experts in our disciplinary spaces overnight, and as a SoTL leader you can support and help build capability in those who are new to the field. Learning to SoTL requires patience and persistence, but it can be incredibly rewarding for both teachers and students.

In this chapter, we have described strategies for locating SoTL and building confidence followed by ways to create SoTL community, capacity, and networks at the local, national, and international levels. We suggested how academics can maximize their engagement with SoTL, and how institutions and leaders can facilitate and support academics in improving teaching and learning in higher education. Importantly, we have put forward suggestions for how academics new to SoTL might navigate their own journeys to consume and produce scholarship around the world, and how those already confident in SoTL can develop and expand their leadership and networks in this field.

SoTL scholars come from all disciplines, every type of institution, and every continent. Dipping in a toe can be the first step in discovering a whole new world of scholars and scholarship centered around systematic inquiry into improving teaching and learning in higher education (Felten, 2013). Getting started can be daunting, but these strategies can help you lead others —and your institution—to begin and sustain meaningful SoTL journeys, regardless of geographical location.

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