In our first spring/summer journal issue of Patterns of Practice: An International Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, the editors seek to take a deep dive into perception of authenticity in higher education. Some central questions emerge:

• What does it mean to be authentic?
• Why should it matter whether we become more authentic?
• What value does authentic teaching and learning practice have?
• How might authenticity inform and enhance the social practice of scholarship of teaching in higher education, and consequently, the learning and development of students? 

Authenticity means different things to different practitioners and the editors are keen to encourage philosophical interpretations on authenticity that relate to social-living-daily practice and practical manifestations of authenticity in higher education. While authenticity is referred to widely in the current higher education trends and debates in terms of the influence of AI, the design of assessment, and future technological directions in higher education more broadly, the editors are open to all manner of contributions that may even reclaim, subvert or re-envision an understanding of an authenticity in higher education. The editors would welcome submissions that might combine some of these elements or might be fully focused on simply one. This is not an exhaustive list but simply a list of potential suggestions:

• Teaching and/or planning/designing a curriculum that is authentic to the nature of the subject/field and its knowledge(s) and skills, 
• Learning from students and their authentic voice,
• Being responsive to and authentic about careers readiness and careers-minded-thinking in our teaching and assessment,
• Being authentic to 'real' SoTL practice in the light of changing and multiple definitions of the field,
• Acknowledging and being authentic to one's own changing sense of teacher identity through our practice,
• Adopting a values-based approach to teaching,
• Being authentic to a research-informed practice in teaching and learning, and
• Being authentic to the interplay of pedagogic, philosophical, values-based approaches in the light of the barriers or opportunities of what this might look in practice.