My teaching and research are closely connected. The questions students ask, the challenges they encounter, and the ways they respond to learning experiences all provide opportunities for reflection and inquiry. Equally, my research interests in leadership, psychological safety, employee voice, academic writing, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence inform the examples, discussions, and learning activities I bring into the classroom. I see this relationship as reciprocal: research helps me teach with greater purpose, while teaching continually sharpens the questions I want to investigate.
Across management, educational leadership, and academic literacy modules, I encourage students to examine evidence, question assumptions, and connect scholarly ideas with situations they recognise. Rather than presenting research as something separate from professional practice, I use it to help students make defensible judgements and understand the limits of their conclusions.
My research interests in psychological safety, voice instrumentality, and employee silence inform discussions about leadership behaviour, organisational culture, team dynamics, and the conditions that make it possible for people to speak up. These themes translate naturally into case analysis, workplace scenarios, and reflective leadership activities.
My earlier doctoral research explored academic writing challenges in a Jamaican university context. This background continues to shape my emphasis on explicit instruction, scaffolded writing tasks, feedback, and helping students understand the conventions and expectations of academic communication.
In MAN4990 and RES3025, I support students in developing viable research questions, making informed methodological choices, and understanding the alignment between a problem, its objectives, the evidence required, and the conclusions that can responsibly be drawn.
I bring questions about AI use, academic integrity, fairness, human judgement, and transparency into teaching and learning activities. My approach encourages students to evaluate AI-generated outputs critically and to remain accountable for the reasoning and decisions represented in their work.
Two of my co-authored studies speak directly to challenges that students and educators encounter in everyday learning environments. I draw on these findings when designing group activities, supporting academic writing, and helping students develop responsible scholarly practices.
Tashieka S. Burris-Melville and Shalieka T. Burris
Journal of Curriculum and Teaching
This mixed methods study of collaborative academic writing identified communication, respect, commitment, and accountability as strengths of functional teams, while also documenting challenges including mistrust, miscommunication, and weak time management. Its findings provide a research-based foundation for how I structure team tasks, make expectations explicit, and encourage reflection on group processes in management and academic writing classes.
Tashieka S. Burris-Melville and Shalieka T. Burris
Equity in Education & Society · First published online 2024
Drawing on data from 160 students at two Jamaican universities, this study found difficulties recognising plagiarised material and differing perceptions of its seriousness. The findings reinforce my emphasis on teaching academic integrity through practice: identifying problematic source use, developing paraphrasing skills, and applying citation and referencing conventions. These are also central learning priorities in the APA 7 Academy.
This additional scholarly resource complements the discussion of teamwork and collaboration in higher education. The publisher's listing is linked below for further exploration.
Some of my current research projects are directly connected to challenges observed in contemporary higher education and management learning. The projects below are presented as ongoing or planned work, rather than as completed studies or published findings.
A Mixed Methods Cross-National Study of Faculty and Student Perceptions of AI Use in Higher Education.
This collaborative study examines how faculty and students understand and navigate the opportunities, boundaries, and ethical tensions associated with AI in higher education. The project connects with my interest in helping students develop informed and responsible AI practices.
This planned multi-institution study examines psychological safety, employee voice, silence, and disengagement within student teams. It builds on questions raised through collaborative learning and group projects in management education, with a particular interest in whether students feel safe to contribute and believe their contributions will make a difference.
Interactive learning resources such as the APA 7 Academy, Research Quest, and leadership scenario games provide opportunities for future systematic evaluation. Their inclusion in this portfolio demonstrates instructional practice; it does not imply that effectiveness studies have already been completed.
I encourage students to move beyond reproducing information and towards creating work that can be discussed, challenged, and used. In educational leadership, students have developed newspaper articles that communicate scholarly ideas to wider audiences. Doctoral students have also designed and facilitated a professional workshop on cultural, structural, and psychological change, engaging practising academic leaders with theory-informed activities and discussion. These experiences help students recognise that scholarship carries responsibilities to professional communities and the public.
Explore student newspaper publications developed through EDU5023 and EDU6012, and the EDU6015 doctoral workshop documented in the Curriculum & Assessment section.
Explore authentic learning evidence →I approach instructional improvement as an ongoing cycle of designing learning experiences, observing how students respond, examining the quality of their work, and making adjustments. Student questions, formative assessments, feedback conversations, and the challenges encountered in research projects are important sources of insight. They help me identify where explanations need to be clearer, where students need additional scaffolding, and where a different activity may better support the intended learning outcome.
My longer-term goal is to examine selected teaching innovations more systematically and contribute to scholarly conversations about effective, ethical, and contextually relevant approaches to teaching in higher education.