Category winner:

Progressing educational partnerships and collaboration

Principal Lecturer, Te Ama Ako/Learning and Teaching Development team, Otago Polytechnic 

“Success comes from listening to individuals, understanding where they are at, and building on their existing knowledge to enable them to complete more complex tasks.”

Claire’s raison d’être is to make a difference, striving to ensure positive experiences for her ākonga and colleagues. She is a true educator - a teacher, facilitator, guide and mentor.  As a Principal Lecturer in Te Ama Ako (TAA), Otago Polytechnic (OP)’s Learning and Teaching Development team, her role is to progress educational partnerships and collaboration across OP to enhance learner outcomes. This mahi extends to national and international partnerships, through external collaboration. Her practice draws on 26 years’ experience as an educator in different contexts and countries. This has contributed to her ability and desire to build relationships based on mutual respect and a shared interest in learning.

When Claire joined OP in 2016, TAA’s responsibilities were determined by service requests from kaiako seeking assistance. The team’s work was reactive, with TAA members supporting individuals or groups in multiple disciplines. Uptake of the team’s workshops was poor, due to timetabling conflicts, lost messages, and kaiako prioritising teaching. As a solution, collaborative Academic Capability Partners (ACPs) were introduced in early 2018 to guide kaiako through designing, developing, and delivering high quality learning experiences. ACP goals are to provide kaiako with best practice, research-engaged learning and teaching, to maximise learner success, and to develop kaiako as skilled educators. Claire initially partnered with the School of Nursing (SoN), having supported the team in 2016 and 2017 to develop the NZDip Enrolled Nursing. In 2020, her ACP role was extended across the College of Health (CoH), to include Occupational Therapy, Midwifery, and Sport, Exercise and Health.

As the first ACP to be embedded within a College, Claire’s primary focus is capability building, with kaiako as her ākonga, responding to their needs and respecting their identities, experiences, and cultures. She liaises with TAA’s Director to ensure strategic priorities are implemented, and shares insights, successes, and challenges during monthly ACP meetings. Her goal is to provide opportunities for growth, empowering kaiako to build on their own skills and knowledge. She aims to develop kaiako to provide quality teaching and leadership, and to model that herself. In partnership with CoH kaiako, she is mindful that learning needs to be relevant to ākonga throughout their lives, to ensure OP graduates are work-ready, sustainable practitioners.

The cornerstone of Claire’s approach originates from her initial teacher training (1996-1997) and she sees teaching as a blend of facilitation and participation in learning. She also learnt to reflect on her effectiveness, and consider how her practice could be improved for better outcomes. Over time, her approach has focused on putting herself in the ākonga’s shoes, being aware of their learner experience. Four elements drive her approach, all guided by reflection. These are building strong relationships, making a difference for her ākonga, providing opportunities for growth, and creating positive and safe learning spaces.

Claire says the ACP role can be challenging, especially when kaiako are asked to think differently about programme design/delivery. This challenges the status quo, and ACPs can sometimes be perceived as ‘intruders’. However, reassuring colleagues she is there to walk alongside them makes a difference to how she is welcomed into a team. Kaiako feedback on the impact of her mahi reports increased collaboration among OP teams, enhanced capabilities, and improved confidence. Claire’s impact across CoH has resulted in improvements to learning and teaching, through supporting teams, for example, to implement marking rubrics, thus ensuring clearer feedback, transparency, and equity for ākonga. She also works with small groups of kaiako to align course aims, learning outcomes, and assessments, provides one-to-one support with educational technologies, and leads discussions across CoH on Artificial Intelligence tools.

In March 2020, learning that a COVID-19 lockdown was imminent, Claire supported SoN to swiftly transition to remote delivery of all courses. During lockdown, her main role was supporting kaiako, many of whom were stressed by online delivery challenges. To ensure a positive ākonga experience, she assisted kaiako to troubleshoot technological problems and navigate new approaches to learning activities and assessments for large learner groups. Back on campus, she designed a survey for all OP kaiako on TAA’s response pre-/during lockdown, and shared findings with TAA and OP’s Leadership Team, to look at how to improve TAA’s service.

Claire continues to learn about how equity and diversity issues in Aotearoa impact education. She works alongside OP’s Kaitohutohu Office (KTO) to ensure appropriate integration of its Māori Strategic Framework, and learning and teaching from a kaupapa Māori perspective in all programmes. She has also collaborated with KTO to include Mātauranga Māori support materials on OP’s staff site.

Recent examples of the scale and reach of Claire’s impact include SoN nominations for Staff Excellence Awards in Leadership (2019) and Service (2020), and OP-wide nomination as Staff Representative on OP’s Kaunihera Whakahaere| Leadership Council (February 2020-October 2021). TAA colleague feedback rates her at 100% in all sections – personal effectiveness, team contribution, OP values and commitments, and leadership. As a member of the CoH Leadership Team, Claire collaborates with colleagues to set goals and discuss strategies. This kōrero has resulted in a shift from siloed activities to an integrated communicative approach. Claire leads online ‘Collegial Connections’ sessions, where kaiako share successes or challenges, with a view to strengthening cross-College relationships.

Her doctoral research, exploring what teaching excellence looks like in practice, has helped her progress TAA’s capability-building focus across CoH, OP, and beyond. Her ‘Keys to Teaching Excellence’ postcards were distributed as a practical resource to OP kaiako in 2022. Colleagues have found this useful, and some Schools are using it to guide Team Development Plans and set annual goals. Claire has been lauded by delegates after presenting the model at conferences in Aotearoa, Norway, Australia, and the USA. 

Claire became OP’s first Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy in 2018, and has since mentored peers applying for Fellowship. Her mahi extends to numerous local, national, and international partnerships. She has been a member, convenor or chair of some nine initiatives and is currently chair of the organising committee for the ICDE World Conference 2025.

“Claire leads by example. She works both up front and behind the scenes to make things happen, and does this effortlessly. Claire uses her considerable knowledge and wisdom to enhance processes, for optimum learning for students.” (colleague).