Digital and pedagogical innovation in higher education increasingly depends on professionals whose work sits outside traditional academic leadership structures. Third Space teaching and learning professionals, including instructional designers, learning technologists, and academic or educational developers, play a pivotal role in shaping learning, teaching, and digital transformation, yet are often required to lead change without formal authority. This creates an ongoing misalignment between how leadership is institutionally recognised and how it is enacted in practice.

Using Whitchurch’s (2013) concept of the Third Space as a theoretical lens, leadership in teaching and learning roles is examined as work often characterised by ambiguity, lack of recognition, and reliance on informal influence. While Third Space positioning enables collaboration and innovation across academic, technical, and professional boundaries, it also requires individuals to navigate complex organisational dynamics, actively construct leadership identity, and make their contributions visible within institutional cultures.

Advance HE’s Aurora Women’s Leadership Programme is used as an illustrative case to examine how structured leadership development can support leadership practice in Third Space teaching and learning roles. Aurora’s emphasis on leadership identity, influence, reflective practice, and adaptive leadership is analysed in relation to the realities of Third Space work. This analysis is situated within a wider ecosystem of leadership development and professional recognition facilitated by sector bodies and networks such as Advance HE, SEDA, ALT, and EDEN, which support leadership development through a range of formal programmes, professional frameworks, and communities of practice.

Leadership development for Third Space teaching and learning professionals is most effective when it reflects how leadership is enacted in practice: relationally, incrementally, and across organisational boundaries. Engagement with structured leadership programmes and professional networks is explored as a way of strengthening leadership identity, enhancing influence, and supporting sustainable pedagogical and organisational change in higher education.

References

Gately, L. (2024). Inhabiting the “Third Space” in Higher Education: A case study on how educational technologists navigate this space in an Irish university. Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.22554/ijtel.v8i1.156

Grant, J., & Kennie, T. (2024). The characteristics and career pathways of third-space research professionals in universities: Reflections from practice. Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI). https://www.hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-characteristics-and-career-pathways-of-third-space-research-professionals.-Reflections-from-practice.pdf

Thorpe, C., & Partridge, H. (2024). The Third Space in Higher Education: A scoping review. Higher Education Policy. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-024-00374-z

Whitchurch, C. (2013). Reconstructing identities in higher education: The rise of “Third Space” professionals. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203098301

Whitchurch, C., and Heaky, G. (2024). The concept of third space as an enabler in complex higher education environments. London Review of Education, 22 (1) 42. https://doi.org/10.14324/LRE.22.1.42

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