Becoming an Academic

Lynn McAlpine, Gerlese Akerlind

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781350306219
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Forschung im Bildungswesen

This book draws on research in Australia, Canada, UK, and US into the experiences of doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and new academics. Each chapter develops research-informed implications for policy and practice to support developing academics, and concludes with commentaries by early career academics, developers and administrators.

1 Academic Practice in a Changing International Landscape

Lynn McAlpine and Gerlese S. Åkerlind

Why this book . . . and why now?

The international higher education landscape has been changing, and these changes are impacting on the perceived purposes of univer sities and academia, the work that academics do, the types of academic appointments available, and the support available for intending academics. In this context, it is timely to reconsider the nature of academic careers, and how developing academics prepare for their careers. In this book we ask: What does a career in academia mean nowadays? For instance,

•What do PhDs, post-docs and new academics think it means to have a ‘career’ in academia? Is ‘career’ a meaningful term?

•What are their perceptions of academic practice, and how do these perceptions relate to their intentions and hopes?

•What are the challenges they face in preparing for, participating in and influencing academic work?

•How do their perceptions relate to their sense of academic purpose and identity . . . their engagement in and contribution to an academic community?

Our aim in addressing these questions is to provide a research-informed perspective from which to develop personal, pedagogical and policy implications to better address the ways in which those who wish to pursue academic careers¹ develop and are supported in that development.

In considering early career development, we thought it important to start earlier than the first academic appointment. Therefore, this book explores the experiences of three early career roles: doctoral students; postdoctoral researchers; and newly hired academics. A unique aspect of this book is the bringing together of these three roles as a progression supporting an academic career, thus positioning the development and preparation of doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and newly hired academics as a combin ation of cumulative formative experiences – while acknowledging the individual and immensely varied nature of these experiences. We argue against treating these roles and experiences as discrete, disconnected periods. This stance is in contrast to much previous research, and many pol icies and practices that clearly differentiate these roles, often focusing on one in isolation from the others. Yet, experience of all three roles – and expectations of participating in them as part of a career trajectory – is increasingly common, not just in the sciences but also in the social sciences. We contend that more effective policies and practices for the development of future academics will emerge if we approach support for all three roles as a continuum.

Thus, this book is aimed at those interested in all three early stages of an academic career, both developing academics themselves wishing to take an active role in their own career development, and those who support them in their development. The latter include university administrators creating and implementing policies for doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and new academics; supervisors and managers of early career academics; academic developers providing training and development for early career academics; academic mentors, heads of departments and supervisors supporting the development of research students and junior colleagues; and educational researchers investigating the nature of academic practice.

Academic practice in a shifting and complex landscape

The shifting higher education landscape affords challenges, as well as opportunities, to new (and more established) academics in developing their academic practices. Situating early career academics within the complexity of today’s higher education practices and policies lays the groundwork for our examination in this book of how they experience, take up and sometimes question the challenges they are facing. Awareness of the potential as well as challenges of academic practice today is necessary in understanding how early career academics can best prepare for their careers, and more senior academics, policy-makers and academic developers best support them.

Overall, we argue that acquiring knowledge about academic practice places early career academics in a better position to be able to respond to any unexpected opportunities and challenges that arise in their own experiences, and thus better able to manage their career development. We view developing academics as their own agents of learning and change. Individually and collectively, they have an important role to play in informing themselves and supporting each other in understanding how changes in higher education may influence their preparation needs and future career paths.

In the remainder of this chapter, we review some of the literature on the changing nature of academic work, and how these changes are being experienced by academics at all stages of their careers. In particular, we highlight the role played by:

•academics’ own personal interpretations, meaning-making and experiences;

•the multiple contexts in which academics are operating; and

•the ways in which academic work has been changing over time.

We explore each of these points in more detail below (under slightly different headings). We end the chapter with a description of the rationale underlying the structure of the book, so that readers have a sense of the different ways in which they might use it.

The importance of personal experience and individual interpretations of academic practice

What do we mean by ‘academic practice’, and how is it different from an academic career or academic work, for instance? The term ‘practice’ represents more than a job, appointment or title that academics hold; it is also more than the tasks, duties and responsibilities that academics engage in; and more than the skills or knowledge academics develop. ‘Practice’ incorporates the totality of individual (and collective) experiences – the ways in which we think, interact, enact and engage as academics in the work we do. The term ‘practice’ brings into play the underlying, sometimes implicit, purpose(s) that motivate us to be academics and through which it is possible to integrate an array of multifaceted duties, responsibilities, skills and knowledge into a coherent sense of academic identity. At the same time, individual purposes, identities and experience are positioned within a collective perspective, i.e. what is similar and different about varying academic practices. This perspective positions the notion of practice as simultaneously about the individual and the group. In other words, our academic practices are created socially, strongly influenced by the communities with which we identify and to which we feel a sense of belonging.

Of course, the notion of practice is not ours alone. There is a growing literature on the notion of social practices in professional settings (Schatzki et al., 2001). Plus, the concept of ‘professional practice’, ori ginally coined by Schön in 1983, is increasingly being used to highlight a view of professional expertise as reflective, integrative, experience-based and skilful, developing and changing over time. That is also our view of academic practice, and we would highlight the following four aspects of academics’ experience of their practice.

Distinct individual histories, dispositions, and values

Our practice is not just what we do, but also who we are as individuals, what we think and what we value. In other words, an individual’s day-to-day actions and related decision-making draw on distinct personal histories (based on gender, class, previous work experiences), professional characteristics and ethical frameworks. Further, these personal experiences and values are influenced by diverse disciplinary and institutional surroundings, but not in a uniform way; contextual influences are experienced differently depending on past and present histories. Thus, there is vast variation in how academic practice is perceived and conceived at an individual level.

Varied roles, motivations and intentions

Despite the traditional view that academic practice encompasses the three aspects of research, teaching and service (at least in North America and Australia; service is not as strongly emphasized in the UK), the reality is that many academics will hold different positions in their careers over time that may privilege one of these aspects over others. Further, different academics value these different aspects of what they do to different degrees. Some academics may choose to have principally administrative positions, others research, and others teaching. Such choices are partly driven by the labour market, by institutional decisions regarding staffing, and by personal choice – what one hopes to do, be, and contribute as an academic.

Tensions and allegiances in negotiating one’s academic practice

In add ition to the shifting expectations society has of academics, there are competing demands and different kinds of allegiances that one experiences in working with colleagues in departments, programmes, institutions and disciplinary organizations. For instance, there may be methodological disputes within a discipline so that individuals feel ‘forced’ to ‘take sides’; there could be disagreements among colleagues as to how, or even whether, to respond to institutional policies; or there might be competing views within a programme as to how to prepare future academics. Thus, a critical element of developing academic practice lies in how an individual learns to navigate these tensions and competing pressures.

Cumulative development towards an academic career

Lastly, the daily experiences of academic practice can be situated in a long-term developmental view of an academic career, encompassing doctoral studies, postdoctoral work, being a newly appointed academic and a senior academic – with different development issues experienced throughout the journey. Development does not stop at one’s first academic appointment or when one achieves tenure or permanency. So, regardless of an individual’s present status, each is engaged in developing practice as an academic, in which the activities engaged in today influence the ongoing development of academic identity as well as present and future careers. Further, while some aspects of a career may be intentionally planned, others often emerge unexpectedly. For instance, the desire for an academic position immediately post-PhD may not be achievable, or there may be options that include moving in and out of academia. In other words, an academic career is not predictable. Yet, a sense of continuity which may not be apparent at the time can come later, through reflecting on and integrating different roles and positions in relation to personal goals, interests and values.

Contexts that impact upon academic practice: tensions within disciplinary, institutional, national and international structures

While individuals create their own personal meaning and identity around academic practice, this practice is also situated within particular socio-geographical-historical contexts, that is, individual experience of academic work is situated within a series of nested contexts (McAlpine and Norton, 2006). Individuals are physically, socially and histor ically located in particular departmental and programme structures. These structures in turn are situated within disciplinary, institutional, national, and international contexts. In other words, both new and established academics are located within a departmental programme context with particular histories, expectations and practices. These disciplinary ‘outposts’ are themselves nested within an institutional context (e.g., faculties, a university), which are in turn nested within a societal and international context. Yet, boundaries between these contexts are permeable, with more immediate influence between close contexts and less immediate between contexts further apart.

Since the different contexts have different drivers and constraints, intersections between them may create tensions as well as support allegiances. For example, international and national priorities, such as competitiveness and accountability, lead to national policies (e.g., Funding Council reduction of the duration of doctoral fellow-ships/scholarships). These in turn influence institutional policies (e.g., an expectation that doctoral students, regardless of discipline, meet these time limits). These public drivers of the work environment can be experienced as a personal constraint among academics who feel, for instance, that consistent times to completion are inappropriate. Despite potential resistance, these more public policies perforce change the personal experience of the nature of inquiry and other research-related activities (Enders, 2007).

Or, given that academics are paid by institutions and thus bear some responsibility towards them, the university and the department may expect, even demand, that academics be available to teach a range of courses outside their area of expertise; or, that they comply with external expectations of teaching responsibility and accept that educational decisions are often made on an economic rather than a pedagogical basis. Such expectations can be perceived as an unwelcome constraint by some academics to their personal vocation, since their investment in research and research collaborations needs to be organized around institutional teaching demands (Schrodt et al., 2003). Further, they may feel more personal al...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Academic Practice in a Changing International Landscape
• 2. Expectations and Experiences of Aspiring and Early Career Academics
• 3. Developing as a Researcher Post-PhD
• 4. Employment Patterns In and Beyond One’s Discipline
• 5. Doctoral Students and a Future in Academe?
• 6. Living and Imagining Academic Identities
• 7. Rethinking Preparation for Academic Careers
• Commentaries from Early Career Academics, Developers and Administrators
• Glossary: International variations in meaning of terms
• Index