Why a teaching portfolio? The developmental and summative uses of the teaching portfolio

Different purposes mean different audiences. The "audience" of the developmental portfolio is usually identical with the "author" (or, more accurately, the "narrator"), but may include trusted peers or mentors. The audience of the summative portfolio includes institutional representatives such as the department head or staff committee - an audience with the authority and responsibility for determining whether or not the staff member will be promoted or confirmed.

The questions addressed in the paper include: 1) Do these different purposes, and the different audiences they imply, suggest different understandings of the portfolio or of good teaching by staff members writing teaching portfolios? 2) Is the reception of the summative portfolio by a staff committee very different from the reception of the developmental portfolio by the writing and reading self, or by a trusted peer or mentor? 3) What are the implications of the answers to these questions for institutional processes and staff development?

The methods used for this study are interviews with individuals falling into four groups: (1) Pro-Vice-Chancellors for sets of faculties and chairs of Faculty staff committees who have assessed teaching portfolios over a period of time; (2) applicants for promotion or confirmation who developed portfolios chiefly for summative purposes; (3) staff members who have used teaching portfolios chiefly for developmental purposes and (4) peers or trusted mentors who have read the developmental teaching portfolio as a way of supporting the staff member writing it. This paper is related to a study addressing similar questions through textual analysis of teaching portfolios.