Australasian academic developers' conceptions of the profession

Seventy-one professionals working in the field of academic/educational/teaching development were surveyed on issues relating to the profession. From that sample, 22 developers were interviewed on a range of related issues pertaining to their perceptions of the profession. The interviewees referred to the profession using different terminology for quite specific and often historical reasons. Different and sometimes diametrically opposed conceptionsof the profession were held by different individuals. In this paper I report on the divergent conceptions of the profession which were reported in those interviews.