Writing Together: A Reflective Essay on Co-Authoring in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Abstract

Over the past several decades, the authors of this reflective essay have written together about the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in books, articles, reports, and blog posts. Drawing on their own experience as collaborative writers, conversations with others who have written together, and analysis of co-authored works in Teaching & Learning Inquiry and other outlets, they explore the possibility that writing together, for all its challenges, may now be a signature feature of SoTL. This does not, of course, suggest that work by single authors does not have a powerful place in the field. What it does indicate is that there are aspects of SoTL that invite collaborative writing. This in turn raises questions about the forms such writing may take, strategies for managing the process, and ways that co-writing may strengthen not only the SoTL movement but other developments in higher education that seek to overcome pedagogical solitude.