The paper will build on earlier findings of the project which examined what supports their professional learning in the workplace (see Harrison & McKeon, forthcoming 2008). We present an analysis of new data and focus specifically on their emerging identities as researchers and academic scholars and provide an analysis of selected interview data from an on-going longitudinal study (2006-8) in England, of the emerging professional, academic identities of five Beginning Teacher Educators. The theoretical underpinning of our project is the socio-cultural context of (professional) learning: the cultural and social contexts of both academic staff and students in higher education are influential in learning and development (Beard et al, 2007). The beginning teacher educators' use of informal learning spaces, and the way they develop within informal learning communities, in addition to their use of any formal learning opportunities, are explored through this case study research. The significance of links between teaching and research activity has become increasingly important worldwide in debates about higher education. Greater efforts in higher education (and so, in turn, in teacher education) are being made to offer students opportunities to learn more in various ways about the research process (see HERF, 2004).

Our case studies of Beginning Teacher Educators have already revealed widely different starting points of their previous in relation to their previous and early experiences and expectations in their emergent research roles (see Murray, 2005). Our research is extending knowledge about how this particular group of new academics is learning from their formal learning support. Little is known, for example, about how, and the extent to which, UK certificated programmes for teaching in higher education (e.g. PG Cert) encourage academics to focus on the integration of their research and teaching roles. Thus, we plan to examine these new academics’ self-reported experiences of their research roles and how they construe these over their early career trajectory in academia. We have already highlighted in our previous paper on the early findings from our project, the large investment of self and expressed emotion in their early feelings of success, failure, competence or incompetence. Our on-going interviews will allow us to interrogate the data further to learn more about the informal and cultural contexts as well as the formal support that is support their learning.

We draw on the framework described by Akerlind (2008) which distinguishes research intentions, outcomes, questions, processes and affects, in order to explore their developing perspectives. In particular what are these new academics’ views of research and scholarship in relation to these different views of research, claimed to be held by experienced academics (in all disciplines)? Three key questions will be explored in this paper: • How do they go about their research and scholarship activities? • What are they trying to achieve? • Why do they approach their research and scholarly activities in this way?