Ethical Demands versus Developmental Aims: Challenges in Collegial Peer Observation in Higher Education

Abstract

Peer Observation of Teaching (PoT) in a CPD course on university teaching aims to enhance lecturers’ awareness of their teaching and support the development of teaching practices through peer feedback. This study explores the relational ethical challenges that arise when peers provide feedback on each other’s teaching within the framework of a CPD university course for academic teachers. The empirical material consists of 17 semi-structured interviews, 18 individual written assignments, and field notes from the researcher’s role as a participant observer. Concepts from Knud E. Løgstrup’s The Ethical Demand were used to interpret observers’ experiences of giving feedback. The analysis identifies key relational ethical challenges that emerge when observers comment on peers’ teaching. From the perspective of this article, the Ethical Demand takes precedence over the improvement of teaching practice. This is because peer relationships and the vulnerability inherent in the act of teaching are emphasized more strongly than the goal of improving teaching practices.