What Promotes and Inhibits Sharing of Learning Designs? Teachers’ Perspectives

This article contributes to the research on learning design by examining the collaborative practices among teachers in professional education. The focus extends beyond classroom activities to encompass the sharing and exchange of diverse knowledge, experience and teaching materials. By drawing from experience at a Danish university college, the article emphasizes the need to move beyond the limitations of highly regulated top-down teaching formats. Through the exploration of four selected empirical cases, it highlights the qualifying aspects of sharing practices as perceived by teachers. The article sheds light on the significance of sharing from the teacher’s viewpoint. It underscores the importance of pedagogical autonomy and the discretion of individual teachers supported by a sharing culture where educators are expected to make their materials available to others but also benefit from the resources of others in the community. By combining top-down/bottom-up strategies with degrees of formality, the article shows how both strategies can take place in sharing practices in the same organization and still generate pedagogical autonomy as long as a low degree of formality is maintained.