Understanding and Navigating Institutional Culture: The SoTL Seed Program as Case Study

Abstract

Faculty engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is often constrained by two persistent challenges: navigating unfamiliar methodological and epistemological traditions outside disciplinary training, and managing teaching-related workload within research‑intensive university contexts. This chapter presents the SoTL Seed Program at the University of British Columbia as a practical case study of an institutional support model designed to address these barriers while fostering a sustainable culture of scholarly teaching. Situated within a large Canadian research‑intensive institution, the program moves beyond traditional funding‑only approaches by pairing faculty members with trained graduate students—SoTL Specialists—who provide embedded methodological, research design, and evaluation support. Drawing on more than ten years of iterative program development and evaluation, the chapter illustrates how institutional context and culture shape both the constraints and opportunities of SoTL leadership. The SoTL Seed Program is framed as an institutional leadership intervention that aligns resources, people, and structures to enable faculty agency, shared responsibility, and cross‑disciplinary collaboration. Particular attention is given to how the program supports educational leadership faculty, promotes student–faculty partnerships, and contributes to professional development for both faculty and graduate students. The chapter also highlights complementary supports—such as consultations, workshops, communities of practice, and low‑barrier dissemination initiatives—that collectively reinforce an institutional ecosystem for SoTL. Through reflection on challenges, adaptations, and lessons learned, the authors offer practical insights for institutional leaders, educational developers, and teaching and learning centres seeking to cultivate inclusive, scalable, and context‑responsive SoTL initiatives. The chapter argues that meaningful institutional change requires patience, ongoing evaluation, and a willingness to design supports that attend to both individual capacity and organizational culture. Ultimately, the SoTL Seed Program demonstrates how thoughtfully designed institutional structures can help normalize, value, and sustain scholarly engagement with teaching and learning.

Two common barriers faculty face when engaging with the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) are: expanding their methodological/epistemological frameworks and managing ongoing challenges associated with teaching-related workload. Faculty often find it challenging to step out of their disciplinary training and expertise, and immerse themselves in methodological and epistemological frameworks in social and behavioral research that might be unfamiliar to them (Hubball & Clarke, 2010). Workload and burnout also challenge faculty’s capacity to engage with SoTL (Gehrke & Kezar, 2015). Exclusively providing institutional funding to support SoTL work fails to recognize these roadblocks. In this practical chapter, we present an innovative institutional support program that addresses both barriers. We discuss how we have enriched our program by identifying and responding to the challenges and opportunities of our institutional context. We frame this program not only as a support mechanism, but as an example of institutional SoTL leadership in practice—one that aligns structures, resources, and people to enable scholarly teaching cultures.

Institutional Context and Culture

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a large Canadian research-intensive institution, with almost 8,000 faculty, over 70,000 students, and over 13,000 staff across two campuses. UBC has both tenured and non-tenured faculty appointments; tenure-track faculty appointments include a research stream and an educational leadership stream. It is home to a range of unit-level teaching cultures, with central and academic unit-level teaching and learning support.

The Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL) is hosted by UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT), a central service unit that offers a range of teaching and learning programs and services. The ISoTL serves UBC’s SoTL community through programs, support, events, and resources. Teaching and learning centres help institutions address the challenges of teaching in higher education and have become critical central units in institutions worldwide in the past few decades, providing cross-disciplinary expertise and support in teaching, inspiration and innovation for pedagogical practices, and a space to build community and break down silos (Asimakopoulos, Karalis, & Kedraka, 2021; Kelley, Cruz, & Fire, 2017).

The ISoTL’s Programs and Services

The ISoTL’s mission is to (a) support faculty members in reflective practices and pedagogical research across disciplines; (b) increase faculty members’ agency as independent SoTL researchers; (c) promote institutional-level recognition of SoTL; and (d) include student perspectives on teaching and learning processes.

The Institute attains its academic mission through:

1. The SoTL Seed Program, a support model that establishes contractual partnerships between faculty members and graduate students with knowledge of learning theories and education/behavioural research methodologies
2. Workshops, events, and curated resources that increase awareness of evidence-informed pedagogies, methodologies, and ethical research practice
3. Consultations on faculty’s SoTL projects, from inception to dissemination
4. Hosting and fostering a SoTL community of practice across disciplines
5. Dissemination of SoTL outputs through financial support and the ISoTL Press (a dissemination venue to showcase the work of UBC’s SoTL community)

The SoTL Seed Program

This chapter highlights the SoTL Seed Program (https://isotl.ctlt.ubc.ca/services/sotl-seed-program/), a unique support model that goes beyond providing funding to support faculty-proposed SoTL projects at UBC. The current support model was established in 2015, and since then it has undergone iterative evaluation to fine-tune to meet the needs of our faculty. In 2022, a paper was published that details an evaluation of the program and provides a more fulsome description of the program operations (Moghtader, Briseño-Garzón, Varao-Sousa & Roll, 2022).  The goals of this program include:

1. Supporting faculty members in engaging in reflective practices and pedagogical research in various disciplines
2. Increasing faculty members’ agency and capacity as independent SoTL researchers
3. Promoting a culture of SoTL at UBC
4. Facilitating student-faculty partnerships on teaching and learning.

At an institutional level, the program functions as a leadership intervention by creating conditions that enable faculty agency, shared responsibility, and scholarly influence beyond individual projects. The ISoTL is allocated $50,000 annually from the UBC Provost and Vice-President Academic office. Faculty members (academic staff) apply with SoTL project ideas and, once projects are approved, are paired with graduate students who provide direct support for the work. The majority of the ISoTL’s operating funding is allocated to this graduate student support. Our program offers up to 70 hours of expert graduate student support, as well as limited discretionary funds for research (e.g., participant incentives) and dissemination expenses (e.g., SoTL conferences). We hire graduate students based on their competency in research methodologies, background in behavioural sciences and education, and interpersonal and communication skills. Students are further mentored and trained in their roles by staff and peers. Through partnering with faculty on SoTL projects across disciplines, they gain further expertise, expand their own repertoire of methods and epistemologies and are thus known as SoTL Specialists. Their support focuses on the research and evaluation aspects of SoTL projects, including scoping research questions, project design, data collection and analysis, and providing a summary of results. On average, the ISoTL employs 10-12 SoTL Specialists at a time. The ISoTL team and SoTL Specialists meet twice a month to share and get feedback on project progress, troubleshoot challenges, and collaboratively review methodological choices. Additionally, these meetings provide an opportunity for the students to engage in professional development activities related to enhancing their SoTL expertise. The team discusses topics such as the use of inclusive language in data collection tools, the use of specific analytical software and methods, the integration of GenAI into our practice, etc. SoTL Specialists typically remain with the team for 2-3 years, many leaving the team when they graduate from their program or move into new positions that help expand their desired skillsets (i.e., student-facing support roles, teaching positions). Annually, we host a professional development session where team alumni share their current role in academia or industry and highlight the importance of their time as a SoTL Specialist.

Entry to the SoTL Seed Program is competitive, with two project intakes per year since 2017. In their application, interested faculty explain the focus of their inquiry and, in connection with the existing literature, indicate its potential contributions to their classroom context and beyond [see endnote 1]. Faculty are prompted to begin conceptualizing a methodological approach and indicate the areas of support they anticipate needing. Adjudication decisions consider potential impact on teaching and learning within the discipline, relevance to the SoTL landscape, and scope/fit of needed support. As of July 2025, the SoTL Seed Program has supported a total of 171 projects. The overall acceptance rate averages approximately 60% per year. The program has supported projects led by faculty from diverse departments, with most accepted applications led by pre-tenure educational leadership faculty [see endnote 2].

A systematic evaluation of our program indicated our partnership model facilitates faculty engagement with SoTL by providing support and expertise from committed and experienced students (Moghtader, Briseño-Garzón, Varao-Sousa, & Roll, 2022). Working collaboratively with a SoTL Specialist supports faculty members’ professional development by enhancing their confidence and agency as SoTL researchers, which is particularly critical and valuable for our educational leadership stream faculty. As one faculty partner stated: “I am really impressed with the model you have created. For example, it’s great that you are not giving me funds and, instead, are mentoring and paying [the SoTL Specialist]. They are learning and getting paid, [and] our team is also learning, from [the SoTL Specialist] and also from each other.”

The SoTL Seed Program, in combination with the ISoTL’s host of services and supports (e.g. workshops, resources, opportunities for dissemination and networking), promotes and nurtures student-faculty, faculty-faculty, and student-student collaborations, which contribute to a robust and collegial SoTL culture at our institution.

Navigating Challenges and Opportunities

The success of the SoTL Seed Program is the result of thoughtful program design and operations, iterative evaluation of our activities and decisions, and constant adaptation to institutional culture and evolving needs.

The ISoTL operates with a small ongoing budget that provides salaries to our SoTL Specialists, and its programs and services are managed and administered by three CTLT staff. As a result of having this dedicated staff, it is possible for us to consult with faculty at any point in their journey (from initial proposal consultations to dissemination of outcomes), collect timely feedback from faculty to address potential challenges, facilitate regular workshops, and curate resources. Having a staff team also allows us to hire and mentor graduate students thoughtfully and support our student team to do their jobs well, through regular meetings, project sharing, and professional development opportunities. We also get the privilege of working side-by-side with passionate faculty, staff, and students as they embark on their SoTL journeys. It is fascinating to witness faculty’s agency and confidence as SoTL practitioners develop and solidify.

Being in a large, research-intensive institution, we are aware of the disciplinary silos and lack of communication among our faculty. The ISoTL has been a hub for networking and collaboration, peer feedback, and interdisciplinary projects that bring together faculty across disciplines, streams and ranks. We facilitate regular and tactically timed peer-feedback/networking meetings to build community amongst our faculty members.

Our team continuously engages in self-improvement. We assess and revise processes and services based on the needs of the UBC community, to align with the ISoTL’s mandate, and due to financial and institutional realities. For example, the SoTL Seed application form has been revised multiple times with the goal of making it accessible to more faculty, especially SoTL novices, while keeping the projects at the highest scholarly standards. More recently, in response to the challenges of disseminating SoTL work, we launched the ISoTL Press: a low-barrier, peer-reviewed online dissemination venue that invites the UBC community to share their SoTL projects and journeys. The non-anonymized peer-review process also promotes mentoring and support amongst SoTL practitioners at UBC.

Thinking of starting your own SoTL Seed Program?

Over the 10+ years since the SoTL Seed Program was first founded, the leadership team has engaged in formal and informal evaluation of the program. From this evaluation and personal reflection, we have key lessons and practical tips for those interested in developing their own program.

From a SoTL leadership perspective, these lessons highlight how institutional leaders can move beyond funding alone to design ecosystems that support learning, risk-taking, and scholarly growth.

1. Funding alone is not enough. SoTL often requires the use of methodologies and methods outside of one’s comfort zone. By pairing faculty with graduate students with behavioural research expertise, they are able to help faculty (disciplinary experts) define their research questions and apply the methods best suited to answer them.
2. Capacity for conducting SoTL is the biggest challenge and also the biggest point of gratitude for the SoTL Seed Program. Offering tangible support in the form of graduate student and staff time and expertise helps offload the difficulty of starting from scratch to learn how to conduct a SoTL project.
3. Build in professional development and networking opportunities. The chance to share project successes and challenges is fundamental to creating collegial support and community. This could be in the form of a community of practice, “show-and-tell” sessions, writing groups, or other events.
4. Patience and self-reflection are key. Even 10+ years after inception, we continue to make changes to the ways we communicate the program to faculty, the application details, and the activities and resources we offer as additional guidance. Systematic and iterative evaluation of your program will help you determine what works best for your faculty members, the graduate students, and the leadership team.

Final Thoughts

The SoTL Seed Program demonstrates that strategic support can help “faculty members to move beyond disciplinary research boundaries, embrace broader social science methodologies, and collaborate with students, colleagues, and key stakeholders in the field” (Hubball, Pearson, & Clarke, 2013, p. 51). Each year, we see new project leads, new SoTL Specialists, and changes in institutional priorities which guide the projects. This continuously dynamic environment offers ongoing opportunities to learn, grow, and adapt our contributions to UBC’s SoTL culture. We recognize that there is still work to be done to keep propelling an institutional culture shift towards one that values and rewards excellence in teaching. Nonetheless, we hope our support model serves as inspiration to institutional SoTL leaders seeking practical ways to support faculty engagement with reflective practice and pedagogical research.

Endnotes

[1] Please contact ctlt.isotl@ubc.ca for a copy of our application form.

References

Asimakopoulos, G., Karalis, T., & Kedraka, K. (2021). The role of centers of teaching and learning in supporting higher education students learning. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 21(13), 69-78. https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v21i13.4789

Gehrke, S., & Kezar, A. (2015). Unbundling the Faculty Role in Higher Education: Utilizing Historical, Theoretical, and Empirical Frameworks to Inform Future Research.  In Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research: Volume 30 (pp. 93-150). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12835-1_3

Hubball, H. T., & Clarke, A. (2010). Diverse Methodological Approaches and Considerations for SoTL in Higher Education. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotlrcacea.2010.1.2

Hubball, H. T., Pearson, M. L., & Clarke, A. (2013). SoTL Inquiry in Broader Curricular and Institutional Contexts: Theoretical Underpinnings and Emerging Trends. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 1(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.1.1.41

Kelley, B., Cruz, L., & Fire, N. (2017). Moving toward the center: The integration of educational development in an era of historic change in higher education. To Improve the Academy, 36(1), 1-8.

Moghtader, B., Briseño-Garzón, A., Varao-Sousa, T. L., & Roll, I. (2022). Faculty and Student Partnerships in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Evaluation of an Institutional Model. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 10. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.10.33

University of British Columbia’s Faculty Association (2024). University of British Columbia Faculty Association Members.