Silvina Bishopp-Martin: the language of learning development

Learning Development, as a form of labour in higher education, is part of a complex ecosystem that has a huge impact on our professional identity. Our values, the expectations we have for our role (along with those our managers have for us), our positioning - structural as well as relational - within our institutions and the work we do, all contribute to the professional practice of learning development. Key to that practice, for Silvina Bishopp-Martin, is the language and the discourse surrounding it. How we talk about ourselves matters; how our institutions talk about us matters too. Yet we do have agency, even within institutional constraints. Language is a form of social action, and the first action we must take is to be part of the discourse, to speak the language of those we wish to influence. We have the capacity to do things differently and make our voices heard if we work collectively. Seek out the champions in your institution and build your networks!The resources we mentionedThe ALDinHE Research Incubator event was held in May 2026 - watch out for the next one!Fairclough, N. (1992) Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity. Fairclough, N. (2001) Language and Power. 2nd edn. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.  Fairclough, N. (2003) Analysing discourse: textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge. Fairclough, N. (2010) Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. 2nd edn. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. And the publication we talked aboutBishopp-Martin, S. (2026). A Case Study Analysis of the Discursive and Institutional Complexities Underpinning Learning Development Professional Practice in Higher Education. Available from: https://pure.canterbury.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/18336293/Thesis_-_Silvina_Bishopp-Martin.pdf