educational development

What I want college leaders to understand about teaching centers

screenshot of book cover for Teaching as if Learning Matters: Pedagogies of Becoming. There is a photograph, taken from overhead, of five people working at a round table, on their laptops.

Teaching centers have shaped who I am as an educator and as a human. They’re not just programs or units — they’re places where people are formed, where care, belonging, and professional identity grow together. When they disappear, institutions don’t just lose services; they lose memory, mentorship, and the relational fabric that makes learning possible. In a world that keeps pushing toward speed, scarcity, and extraction, teaching centers quietly do something radical: they protect people, build community, and keep the heart of education alive.

What does educational development even mean?

I hope colleagues in educational development take some time to think about what “development” means to them and the work they do. I hope they will think about how the term “educational developer” fits or doesn’t, especially as many of my colleagues’ roles have expanded into mentoring and diverse career exploration. Maybe I’ve provided some insight into the work I do to make it legible to others.