Why academics in an Australian university want teaching-focused roles: a qualitative summative analysis

Differences in how teaching-focused roles are envisaged are evident in two main narratives, deficit-based and strength-based, that appear in the literature, often together. Few studies have explored academics’ motivation to change to teaching-focused roles. This paper examines 45 applications for 12-month secondments to teaching-focused roles at an Australian university received between 2019 and 2021. Summative content analysis was used to build a descriptive profile, and the three broad areas – autonomy, mastery, and purpose – of Pink’s framework for human motivation were used as the basis for a framework analysis to explore motivation. Applicants were found to be diverse, experienced academics with a passion for teaching. Three main themes were evident regarding purpose: focus, legacy, and leadership. A multilevel model to better describe teaching-focused roles is proposed. Motivated teaching-focused academics have enormous potential to improve teaching quality and student experience if institutions consider more effective approaches to their utilisation.