The landscape of higher education continues to evolve in ways that have significant implications for the academic profession, including the shaping of academic identities. In a context of increasing ...marketisation, it is essential to understand more about the complex relationship between academic identities and structural change within the tertiary education sector.
This study sought to review research evidence to gain insight into how academics are experiencing change in higher education environments, and how this may influence their work and identities.
A literature review, which focused on empirical studies involving academics working in higher education, was conducted to examine the relationship between academic identities and the changing higher education context. A search identified 44 relevant articles and these were analysed using a content analysis approach.
According to the analysis of literature, a growing number of empirical studies is exploring how academics respond to, adapt to, and are vulnerable to changes in the higher education context. Studies drew attention to the fluid nature of identity processes during these changes, with academics sometimes developing hybrid identities, prioritising certain activities and/or seeking to achieve balance. Issues evident included high workload, with increases linked to administrative tasks and performance expectations.
The review of literature raises important questions about the core of the academic profession and the potential risk of detachment from its central principles. In a context of transition within higher education, it points to the need to value the agency of academics in their work and recognise this as integral to, rather than peripheral to, institutional decision-making.
Career success in academia Sherif, Karma; Nan, Ning; Brice, Jeff
Career development international,
12/2020, Letnik:
25, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
PurposeIn this study, the authors explore the boundaryless careers of faculty and adopt the intelligent career framework to examine success factors for academic careers.Design/methodology/approachThe ...authors conducted a field study of 36 researchers in the management information systems field from 22 institutions in the US, Australia and Canada. The authors selected the participants representing four strata of researchers: luminaries (high expertise status and high citizenship behavior), experts (high expertise status but low leadership roles), statesmen (low expertise status but high leadership) and journeymen (low expertise status and low leadership). Data regarding the participants' experience of social relationships and social resources as well as entrepreneurial motivations were collected and analyzed.FindingsResults show that faculty who “know-why”, “know-how”, and “know with whom” possess socially valued resources and are successful in advancing their careers. They establish high social status and exercise power within their networks to mobilize resources that promote their careers. On the other hand, faculty who fall short of these competencies impose social closure on themselves and do not strive to exploit resources available through their contacts. The study advances a number of theoretical propositions to guide future research on boundaryless intelligent careers.Social implicationsSocial relationships and social resources do not substitute individual competence, leadership and entrepreneurial motivations; individuals need to develop competence valued by their professional communities and exploit available opportunities and assume leadership roles in order to effectively establish instrumental relationships and mobilize social resources to achieve career advancement.Originality/valueIn this study, we attempt to extend career development research through an examination of the bidirectional relationship between know-why, know-how and know-who in academia.
The aim of the present research was to assess elite student-athletes' perception of the dual career during the lockdown caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, compared with a ...group of elite student-athletes who could develop their dual career under normal conditions. A total of 150 elite athletes who were also undergraduate or postgraduate students self-completed the "Perceptions of dual career student-athletes (ESTPORT)" questionnaire. From them, 78 did it during the mandatory lockdown period due to the state of emergency caused by COVID-19 (COVID-19 group) and 72 completed it in the previous year to Rio 2016 Olympic Games (control group). The COVID-19 group was found to spend a significantly higher number of hours per week studying, while no significant differences were observed between groups in any training time variable. Student-athletes of the COVID-19 group showed better perception of whether their sport career could help them cope with their academic career and better general perception of remote learning and the use of tasks and videoconferencing as learning support tools. A lower percentage of athletes of the COVID-19 group than of the control group wished to continue with their sport career once they finished their studies. To conclude, student-athletes of the COVID-19 group show adaptations with regard to the organization of their studies and the importance they give to them and to the services provided by dual-career programs, compared with student-athletes from an ordinary pre-Olympic year. In general, student-athletes' perception of the dual career is very positive.
There are multiple factors that can potentially impact the career progression of academics to professoriate level (referred to as levels D and E in Australia). This research provides a detailed ...understanding of critical factors (by gender) that negatively influence career progressions. Perceptions of factors that influence career progressions have been found to be more pronounced amongst female academics in STEMM and business disciplines. The conventional view of family commitments as being a hindrance to career progression has not been supported in our data. On the contrary, it is the organizational factors that would appear to be prevalent at an institutional level that seems to be significant barriers to the career progression. Particularly for female academics’ progression to levels D and E. The most prominent factors identified through confirmatory factor analysis conducted in the study are workloads and a lack of resources to undertake research and to generate research performance, which is a critical impacting factor for career progression to professoriate levels. These factors have been exacerbated by COVID-19.
Increased public investment in PhD education to drive innovation has led to a recent rapid growth in the number of PhD graduates. Academic labour markets have not developed at the same pace. An ...ever-larger share of the graduates is finding employment in industry. The transition from academia to industry is not always easy. The present study aims to provide insights into the role played by PhDs' networks in the job search after graduation. Our data comprise interviews with industry-employed doctoral graduates in STEM disciplines from Sweden, Norway and the UK. Our findings show that PhDs' autonomously built personal networks can help match their specific scientific expertise with labour market demands. We distinguish country-specific patterns and characteristics of the transition, in which regional career paths are more (Scandinavia) or less (the UK) noticeable. The study has practical implications, in particular for PhD students and graduates, related to their career orientation.
Abstract
The Chinese government has been actively recruiting foreign-trained Chinese scholars to return to China since the Chinese brain drain began. Japan is among the most popular destinations for ...Chinese scholars seeking to receive doctoral training. This study explores the factors contributing to the stratification of Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs’ academic career attainments using the Mertonian norm of universalism. The results indicate that the norm of universalism can partly explain the stratification of Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs. The reason for this is that their higher pre-graduation productivity enhances the chance that Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs have of obtaining an academic position at a top university in China. In addition to pre-graduation academic productivity, other factors, including the prestige of the university attended, the duration of the academic sojourn in Japan, and the ethnicity of the supervisor influence employment outcomes.
From a critical autoethnographic perspective, this article records the herstory of a young African woman positioned as an international academic in the U.S. ivory tower. I rely on Dove's (1998). ...African womanism: An Afrocentric theory. Journal of Black Studies, 28(5), 515-539. https://do.org/10.1177/002193479802800501 African womanist theory and Afrocentric cultural frames to narrate and interpret my experiences. I critically navigate my intersectionality through cultural communication and autoethnography as I dance to tunes of apatampa to present a positioned, encultured, and embodied account of myself. As a corollary, I use different African features and methods of womanist engagements, such as storytelling, poetry, and proverbs, to share my experiences as a young African woman in a predominantly white institution (PWI). I share how this ussearch can be utilized to inform practice to increase the whistle volumes of African and international female faculty in U.S. higher education.
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