Teacher Roles and Work Contexts in Higher Education: A Scoping Review

An empirical overview of teacher roles in higher education that shows the versatility of the teaching profession, specifically considers context, and may stimulate collaboration is lacking. This study acts on current research and practice gaps by conducting a review to provide a new professional image of the higher education teaching profession, addressing the following research questions (RQs): (RQ1) Which roles and work contexts of teachers are found? (RQ2) What is empirically known about the content of these teacher roles found within various work contexts? and (RQ3) Which combinations of teacher roles and contexts occur, and how do they relate to each other? A scoping review was conducted including 139 peer-reviewed records. Fifteen primary roles of higher education teachers were identified, mainly targeting students. Roles differed per context based on content, name, existence, or perspectives. Different role combinations were identified, but only three articles mentioned the possibility of dividing these roles between two teachers.