As an educational developer, I design, lead, and teach courses and workshops in higher education pedagogy and subject-specific teaching offered by the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching (CeUL). Currently, I am responsible for the courses Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 1 (UL1), Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 2 for the Human Science area (UL2HS), as well as the advanced courses Course Analysis and Development and Relational Competence in Teaching.

I am also responsible for specially designed courses for teacher educators and frequently deliver workshops on topics such as:

• Pedagogical Relational Competence
• The Seminar as a Teaching Method
• Community of Inquiry
• Decoding the Disciplines
• How Generic Competencies Enhance Disciplinary Learning
• Writing Your Teaching Portfolio
• How to Demonstrate Teaching Proficiency
• Assessing Teaching Qualifications

My primary research interest lies in pedagogical and didactic relationships, as well as in relational ontological and epistemological perspectives. I explore the relationships between teacher and learner, between student and subject matter, and between teacher and subject, all through a relational lens. I earned my PhD in Education in 2008 with a dissertation that examined the teacher–student relationship through Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue, framing it as a matter of address and response. The aim was to find new ways to articulate—and thereby rethink—pedagogical and didactic relationships. The study conceptualized the teacher–student relationship as one in which the teacher heeds to the student’s address (their needs, struggles, strengths, etc.), responds with responsibility (through loving guidance), and in turn addresses the student (by provoking and challenging them).

I have since developed this interest in pedagogical relationships and relational perspectives by applying the concepts of address and response to describe learning as an existential dialogue between student and subject matter (see Jons, 2014), and more recently as a broader understanding of interpersonal relationships (Jons, 2024). In two book chapters, I have also applied O.F. Bollnow’s and M. van Manen’s ideas on pedagogical relational competence within the context of academic teaching (Jons, 2015; Jons, 2016).

I actively participate in two networks focused on relational pedagogy: the national network Relationell pedagogik and the international Relation-Centered Education Network.

I am also interested in the professional development of teacher educators and university teachers. I lead the research group Professional Development in School-Based Teacher Education and have studied triadic conversations in practicum settings within teacher education (see Jons, 2017), as well as the discourse of “the good physics teacher” in physics teacher education (see Jons & Airey, 2023). My most recent project in this area explored teachers’ passion for their subject (see Jons, 2024).