Session Information
01 SES 08 B, Tackling Educational Inequality through Professional Development
Paper Session
Contribution
This paper focuses on the impact of lectures own doctoral study on their own and collective identities.
Context. The lived experience of being a university lecture is complex. Roles and identities become more unstable and multiple as teaching and research seem to become more fractured amidst global neoliberal economic agendas. As consequence of this research becomes more selective and teaching becomes more driven by the student as consumer. (Clegg, 2009; Barnett, 2005; Thomson and Gunter, 2011). For many lecturers in HE across Europe there is a tension in the priorities given to research, teaching and organisational management. Tensions become more fraught as local, national and global accountability systems rank institutions in both teaching and research (Harris, 2005). Within universities, there are some faculties in which these tensions are heightened. For example in allied health professions and education, taught degree programmes incorporate professional accreditation, such as nursing and teaching. In the UK, the importance of having expert practical knowledge has often resulted in the appointment of lecturers whose practical and professional expertise has precedence over their research standing. (Boyd and Harris, 2010). Within the changing competitive climate in HE, many lecturers, without doctorates, are now engaging in their own doctorate study in order to further develop their own research. Furthermore, institutions focusing on professional qualifications are trying to ensure that all lecturers have research and professional expertise. In the context of this shift, there are significant and under explored issues for lecturers and HE institutions. The focus in this paper is on six lecturers employed and also undertaking a doctorate on one campus in one of the largest university education faculties in Europe. They have all previously been school teachers. These six lecturers have voluntarily formed a research group, facilitated by a colleague within the faculty. The purpose of the paper is to:
- Discuss the perceived impact of ‘doing’ a doctorate on lecturers’ own identity
- Develop a shared context for exploring identity, positionality and doctorate study within HE in order to further develop the notion of ‘collective identity’.
Theoretically, the meta theoretical framework relates to notions of identity. Bauman’s contribution of ‘liquid modernity’ (2004) forms a backdrop for the paper. There is recognition that there is a restlessness caused by change and the fragility exposed as systems rapidly evolve, and create, more than ever, unknown futures. Thus, identity is seen as liquid and as a process of ‘becoming’. This is explored by the participants through narrative discussion and writing as they consider their own lecturing roles and the ways in which engaging in doctorate study, alongside their lecturing positions, may influence their lives and their work. The research is interpretative and can broadly be located in a social constructionist paradigm.
Each participant has brought his/her own theoretical lens to explore meanings of doctoral study and shifts in identity, both for themselves and for the group. The paper therefore draws on a range of theoretical perspectives which include: exploring notions of authenticity through realignment and (re)-positioning in relation to knowledge/practice (Britzman 2003….); understanding and recognising shifting ‘leading identities’ (Black et.al 2009) as part of one’s own ‘identity trajectory’ (Mc Alpline et.al., 2014); and examining the social relations through figured worlds (Holland, 2001) within the academy through power hierarchies (Foucault) within the organisation.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Barnett, R. ( 2005) (ed.) Reshaping the university: new relationships between research, scholarship and teaching. Buckingham, Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press. Bauman, Z. (2004) Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Black, L., J. Williams, P. Hernandez-Martines, P. Davis , and . G. Wake. (2009). ‘Developing a ‘Leading Identity’: The relationship between students’ mathematical identities and their career and Higher education aspirations. Educational Studies in Mathematics 73 pp.55-72 Boyd, P and Harris, K. (2010) Becoming a university Lecturer in teacher Education: expert school teachers reconstructing their pedagogy and identity. Professional Development in Education 36: 1-2 pp. 9-24. Britzman, D. (200) Practice makes Practice A Critical Study of Learning to Teach State.University of New York: Sunny press Clandinin, D.J and Connelly, F.M. (2004) Narrative Inquiry. San Franciso: Jossey Bass. Clegg, S.(2008) Academic Identites under threat? British Educational Research Jouranl 34:3, pp. 329-345 Harris, S. (2005) Rethinking academic identies in neo-liberal times. Teachng in Higher Education, 10:4 pp.421-433. Garland, P. (2014) What can the work of Habermas offer educational researcher development programmes? Studies in Higher Education 39: 1 pp. 87-101. Habermas, J. (1984) The Theory of Communicative action vol 1,Reason and the rationalisation of society. London: Heinemann. Habermas, J. (1987) The Theory of Communicative action vol 2, Lifeworld and system: a critique of functionalist reason. Cambridge: Polity. Holland, D.(2001) Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Harvard University Press McAlpine, L. and Amundsen, C. (2009) Identity and agency: pleasures and collegiality among the challenges of the doctoral journey. Studies in Continuing Education 31:2 pp.109-125. Mc Alpine, L., Amundsen, C and Turner, G. (2014) Identity-Trajectory: Reframing early career academic experience. British Educational Research Journal 40:6, pp.952-969. Murray, J. and Male, T. (2005) Becoming a Teacher Educator: evidence from the field. Teaching and Teacher Education 21 pp 125-142. Sfard, A. and Prusak, A. (2005) Telling identities: in search of an analytic tool for investigating learning as a culturally shaped activity. Educational Research, 34:4 pp. 14-22. Thomson, P. and Gunter, H. (2011) Inside, outside, upside down: the fluidity of academic researcher ‘identity’ in working with/in school. International Journal of Research and method in Education 34:1 pp.17-30. Wenger , E. (1998) Communities of Practice: learning , meaning and identity ( New York, Cambridge University Press.
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