scholarly journals Academic identity in a changing Australian higher education space: the higher education in vocational institution perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Alice Sinclair ◽  
Sue Webb
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Identity ◽  
Vocational Institution

Constructing academic identity in the European higher education space: Experiences of early career educational researchers

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-268
Author(s):  
Sanja Djerasimovic ◽  
Marialuisa Villani
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Academic Identity ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Geographic Mobility ◽  
Academic Values ◽  
Professional Identification ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Entrepreneurial Spirit ◽  
European Higher Education

This exploratory paper presents insights from a qualitative interview-based study of the academic identity-building among a group of early career researchers working in the field of education across the European higher education space. Set against a policy background framed by the initiatives in European higher education and research policy, geared towards a production of a mobile, entrepreneurial researcher in pursuit of ‘valuable’ knowledge, the respondents’ narratives reveal individual complexity, but also emerging patterns of professional identification. We identify the traditional academic values of creating and sharing knowledge validated by an epistemic community, and pursuing autonomy and collegiality in research, as still dominant, however, find these interacting with the demonstration of a strong proactive, entrepreneurial spirit, and a lack of institutional attachment. The narratives indicate the availability of supportive, encouraging communities as being of high significance, and contest the notions of Europeanisation and the utility of geographic mobility in researchers’ identities. The paper discusses different types of academic identification driven by value orientation and social attachment that emerged from the early career researchers’ interviews, alongside pervasive issues around mobility raised in most narratives, and concludes with suggestions for further study.

scholarly journals Reconstructing my identity

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Academic Identity ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Personal Story ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
University Setting

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer an insight into mental health illness in academia, and its impact on academic identity. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an evocative autoethnographic approach, utilising diary entries collected during the author’s three-month absence from her university due to depression and anxiety. A contemporary methodology, autoethnography seeks to use personal experience to provide a deeper understanding of culture. In this personal story, the author explores her decline in mental health and subsequent re-construction of her academic identity in order to enhance understanding of the organisational culture of higher education. Findings This paper illustrates how, rather than being an achievement, academic identity is an ongoing process of construction. Although mental health illness can contribute to a sense of loss of self, identity can be re-constructed during and after recovery. Autoethnographic explorations of depression and anxiety in higher education provide a deeper understanding of an often stigmatized issue, but researchers should be alive to the political and ethical pitfalls associated with deeply reflexive research. Originality/value There is little autoethnographic research on mental health illness in a university setting. This paper offers unique insights into the lived experience of depression and anxiety in the context of academic life, through the lens of academic identity.

scholarly journals Academic identity, confidence and belonging: The role of contextualised admissions and foundation years in higher education

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 554-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katriona O'Sullivan ◽  
Niamh Bird ◽  
James Robson ◽  
Niall Winters
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Identity

scholarly journals Shrinking Budgets, Growing Demands: Neoliberalism and Academic Identity Tension at Regional Public Universities

AERA Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 233285841875773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryl Dugas ◽  
Kelly H. Summers ◽  
Lindsay N. Harris ◽  
Amy E. Stich
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Academic Identity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Faculty Work ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Teacher Researcher ◽  
Combined Impact

Faculty ( N = 156) at regional public universities (RPUs) in the United States were surveyed for self-reports of their primary academic identity (teacher, researcher) along with alignment of that identity with perceived departmental expectations and how their time is spent. Well-being and job satisfaction were examined as outcome measures of identity and alignment. The results are examined in the context of international concerns about neoliberalism in higher education, particularly with respect to academic identity. Participants were employed by RPUs in Illinois, a state with severe budget challenges, to assess the combined impact of neoliberalism and financial pressures on academic identity at traditionally teaching-focused institutions. Results of MANCOVA and MANOVA analyses suggested that participants who identify as teachers had greater overall well-being and job satisfaction than those who identified as researchers. Greater satisfaction was associated with alignment between identity and how time is spent. Implications and challenges to faculty work and strains on academic identity at RPUs are discussed.

scholarly journals Looking over our shoulders: critical thinking and ontological insecurity in higher education

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Christine Jones
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Academic Identity ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Academic Role ◽  
Five Disciplines ◽  
The Face ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Australian Universities

This paper examines the changing landscape of higher education from the perspective of teaching academics. Critical thinking has been seen as one of the central facets of the academic identity and so this paper uses the notion of critical thinking as a lens through which to explore this changing identity. It argues that the professional identity of the academic is in a state of flux, which has caused uncertainty regarding the academic role, its freedoms and responsibilities. The particular focus here is on teaching and the changes occurring in this arena. The paper reports the findings of a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with academic staff across five disciplines from two Australian universities. In the modern university, the pressures of accountability to a range of stakeholders, both internal and external, are changing the face of university teaching.

scholarly journals Toward a Substantive Theory of the Academic Advising Process: A Grounded Theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-105
Author(s):  
Craig M. McGill
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Academic Advising ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Academic Identity ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Informed Decision Making ◽  
Substantive Theory

The role of academic advising in higher education remains largely misunderstood by university stakeholders, faculty and staff, students, and academic advisors. Many hold the simplistic view that academic advising is merely transmitting information to students to ensure timely graduation, a perception that limits what advising can do for student learning, growth, and development. Interviews with NACADA leaders and document analysis reveals a grounded theory of the academic advising process: within the advising context, students connect with caring institutional representatives, make meaning of experiences, and engage in informed decision-making. Synthesizing these experiences helps students develop their academic identity. The theory can aid stakeholders outside of academic advising and give practicing advisors language to explain the valuable work they do with students.

scholarly journals ‘I'll play the game, but I cannot stay’ : The role of third space professionals in encouraging the retention, success and sense of belonging of undergraduate students

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Hughes ◽  
Debra Cureton ◽  
Jenni Jones
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Academic Identity ◽  
Educational Provision ◽  
Academic Coach

In 2019, a diverse, post-92, Midlands university implemented a new, hybrid third space role called the ‘academic coach’ (AC) to support its mission towards to support its mission to make its educational provision fully accessible to all its students, to retain them and to ensure their success to support its mission to make its educational provision fully accessible to all its students, to retain them and to ensure their success of all its students. Since a sense of belonging to their institution is such a powerful influence on students’ sense of wellbeing, their development of an academic identity and their resilience in the higher education context, with consequent positive impact upon their retention and success, this role is devoted to the pastoral care and personal tutoring of levels three and four students. This case study considers the journey of the AC in defining and shaping this new role and offers the ACs’ perceptions of their influence on the experience of students at levels three and four by enhancing collaborative and learning relationships within the wider university.

scholarly journals Legibility Zones: An Empirically-Informed Framework for Considering Unbelonging and Exclusion in Contemporary English Academia

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Wren Butler
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Academic Identity

This article introduces a new, empirically-derived conceptual framework for considering exclusion in English higher education (HE): legibility zones. Drawing on interviews with academic employees in England, it suggests that participants orientate themselves to a powerful imaginary termed the hegemonic academic. Failing to align with this ideal can engender a sense of dislocation conceptualised as unbelonging. The mechanisms through which hegemonic academic identity is constituted and unbelonging is experienced are mapped onto three domains: the institutional, the ideological, and the embodied. The framework reveals the mutable and intersecting nature of these zones, highlighting the complex dynamics of unbelonging and the attendant challenge presented to inclusion projects when many apparatuses of exclusion are perceived as fundamental to what HE is for, what an academic is, and how academia functions.

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