Teacher feedback literacy in higher education: navigating enablers and constraints

Feedback is essential to effective teaching in higher education. Teachers are expected to support student learning through dialogic feedback while navigating interpersonal, institutional and societal factors that may enable or constrain their efforts. This article explores how university teachers perceive such enablers and constraints across multiple levels, and how they shape teacher feedback literacy. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with 34 associate and full professors from five universities in Australia, Denmark and Norway. Using reflexive thematic analysis, the study identified five tensions that shape feedback decisions: workload versus workarounds, intuition versus evidence-based practice, individual autonomy versus institutional structure, teacher intention versus student engagement and institutional structures versus imaginative openings. Findings show that systemic conditions such as workload pressures, limited institutional support and fragmented departmental coordination strongly influence what feedback practices are possible. While teachers often devise creative strategies to enhance feedback, these efforts are constrained by systemic barriers that limit their viability. Hence, this article highlights the need for institutional feedback literacy to establish structures, cultures and resources that sustain feedback practices across micro (teacher–student), meso (course/module) and macro (institutional/policy) levels.