Building a Case Study: A Marketing Academic Trainee’s Learner Journey

The lead author of this working paper is a member of the Marketing Academy currently entering the second of four years of a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) position at Edinburgh Napier University. The working paper consists of a proposal towards research that will bring together the author’s professional practice and doctoral research in a case study. The case study research will gather data on the introduction of a case study that will be used to in a teaching activity with two distinct focus groups consisting of marketing practitioners and students. As part of Edinburgh Napier University’s current strategy, Academic members of staff should seek excellence in many areas of practice, including imparting knowledge to students, guiding them to become critical learners, producing research with measurable outcomes, remaining linked with industry, remaining up to date with the latest thinking in our subjects, and ensuring adherence to University procedures and quality processes (E.N.U., 2014). This process is ongoing, with many inter-connected, but separate areas of concern. As this multi-stranded approach to teaching is in line with the marketing discipline itself, which requires environmental scanning and connection with stakeholders to be effective (Ressier, 2013), the challenge for the academic in training is learning and making progress on all fronts simultaneously.