What does leadership in SoTL actually look like?
Irma Meijerman
Irma Meijerman Consultancy & Training, https://irmact.com/
Perhaps you recognise some of these activities.
You organise a gathering where colleagues exchange ideas about teaching and learning. You help a colleague get started with a SoTL project. You connect people who share similar interests. You build a community. You advocate for the value of educational inquiry. You create opportunities for students to contribute to educational improvement.
And yet, you may not describe these activities as leadership.
After all, you may not be a programme director, department head, or manager. You may see yourself simply as a teacher, educational developer, fellow, SoTL advocate, or colleague who cares about learning.
In fact, these are often exactly the kinds of activities that help SoTL grow, spread, and influence educational practice.
Many forms of leadership in SoTL start with these everyday activities rather than with a formal role.
The more people we met through the SoTL community, the more often Andrea and I found ourselves asking the same question.
Again and again, we met people who were creating opportunities for others, connecting colleagues, building communities, supporting educational inquiry, and helping good ideas spread. Whether they saw themselves as leaders or not, their work was having a significant impact.
What makes this particularly challenging is that much of this work remains invisible. It often happens alongside regular teaching and academic responsibilities, without a formal role, clear recognition, or dedicated support. Yet these efforts frequently shape how SoTL develops within programmes, departments, and institutions.
As we reflected on our own journeys —and listened to the stories of colleagues—the more one question kept coming back. Much has been written about how to conduct SoTL. We became increasingly interested in what happens when SoTL starts to influence colleagues, communities, and educational practice beyond a single project.
How does that happen? And what role does leadership play in it?
Perhaps one of the unexpected things about editing this book was that it also made us reflect on our own journeys. Looking back, many of the things we now recognise as leadership didn’t feel like leadership at the time. They simply felt like the next logical step.
That observation became the starting point for Routes to Change: Strategic Leadership in SoTL.
It soon became clear that this wasn’t a story we could tell on our own. Leadership in SoTL takes many forms, so we invited colleagues from across the international SoTL community to share their own experiences.
Leadership beyond formal roles
One of the things that struck us while editing the book was the diversity of leadership journeys.
There is no single route to leadership in SoTL.
The stories in the book range from building SoTL communities and networks to creating fellowship programmes, working with students as partners, supporting colleagues, and navigating institutional cultures. Some focus on local initiatives within a single department, while others explore leadership across institutions, countries, and international networks.
What struck us was not how different these stories were, but how many common threads emerged across very different contexts.
They all found ways to help SoTL move beyond an individual project or classroom. In many cases, they did so without formal authority.
What can readers take from the book?
The book will not give you a single definition of leadership, nor will it offer a step-by-step recipe for creating educational change.
Instead, it provides examples, ideas, strategies, and honest reflections from people who have navigated these questions in their own institutions.
Some chapters may help you think differently about your own role. Others offer practical insights into building communities, supporting colleagues, working with students as partners, or creating opportunities for educational conversations.
And sometimes it is simply reassuring to discover that others have wrestled with the same questions.
There is no single route to leadership in SoTL, but the stories in this book show many possible starting points.
Our main message
If there is one message running through the book, it is this:
Leadership in SoTL often starts long before people see themselves as leaders — and sometimes long before others recognise it as leadership as well.
It begins when someone asks a question about learning.
When they share an idea with colleagues.
When they create space for others to become involved.
When they connect people, build communities, and help good ideas spread.
Those actions may seem small.
But many of the stories in this book show how small actions can grow into something much larger over time.
Looking back, that may be one of the things we learned most while editing this book. Leadership in SoTL often becomes visible only in hindsight. Many contributors did not set out to become leaders. They simply started by asking questions, bringing people together, or trying something new.
We hope you will recognise a little of your own journey in theirs.
And perhaps discover that you have been practising leadership in SoTL all along.
The book is available as an open-access download:
