Since beginning my journey as a part-time PhD student at Dublin City University’s Institute of Education in October, I’ve been carving out a plan for my intended project. I was delighted to be accepted into the GO-GN network early on, and today I am going to share some of my early insights and plans as part of the member research special. You can see my slides and read the abstract below. Thanks again to Beck Pitt for the invite.
Reimagining the Role of Learning Designers: Exploring Professional Identity and Postdigital Paradigms through Critical and Creative Methodologies
As a new PhD researcher and long-time practitioner, I have recently set out to examine the professional identity of Irish learning designers, leveraging creative and critical research methodologies that have stemmed from my professional and academic practice. This research will be submitted as a PhD by publication. The first paper, a short commentary, will explore ongoing research into the professional identity of learning designers in the third space. Drawing on a previously tested, open practice-oriented workshops developed from a recent book chapter (Molloy & Thomson, 2023, 2024, 2025), we will explore how a third space practitioner might adapt practice-based methods into their research design, equipping early career researchers with the agency to develop a unique approach to third space research.
The next paper, a systematic review, will examine the professional identity of learning designers using critical discourse analysis, and how that process could create more equitable, co-designed visions for the future. Learning designers often exist in liminal spaces between academic and professional services in higher education, which can blur and undermine their status within the institution. This can be further compounded by the “disembodied skills-based constructions of learning designers” in job descriptions (Costello et. al., 2022, p. 460). Research and publication duties are most often related to the research of technology enhanced learning relevant to daily practice, not professional identity. This proposed methodology will analyse the roles of authors, revealing any presence of power imbalances in the literature and provide useful insights into representational gaps. It has been accepted for the inaugural European Conference on Critical Edtech Studies conference in Zurich, where I hope to seek feedback from colleagues.
References
Costello, E., Welsh, S., Girme, P., Concannon, F., Farrelly, T., & Thompson, C. (2023). Who cares about learning design? Near future superheroes and villains of an educational ethics of care. Learning, Media and Technology, 48(3), 460–475. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2022.2074452
Molloy, K., & Thomson, C. (2023). Humanising learning design with digital pragmatism. In Czerniewicz, L., & Cronin, C. (Eds.), Higher education for good (1st ed., pp. 397–420). Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0363.17
Molloy, K., & Thomson, C. (2024). Humanising learning design with digital pragmatism. OER24 Conference. Association for Learning Technology. https://blokks.co/schedules/oer24/#/2024-03-28/qmv8976e62ga/workshop-122-humanising-learning-design-with-digital-pragmatism
Molloy, K., & Thomson, C. (2025). Embedding sustainability literacies in postdigital learning design. Education after the algorithm: Co-designing critical and creative Futures. Dublin City University. https://www.conftool.org/eaa2025/index.php?page=browseSessions&path=adminSessions&print=embed&form_session=3
