This paper investigates the academic identity of higher education (HE) teachers as it depends on the crossroad between academic roles and their scientific field presence.  Namely, this paper intends to search in what ways such relationship depends on the scientific area, having in mind the different connections concerning knowledge production, academic research and technical, and social uses in different areas of knowledge.

An academic identity can be defined as the core attitudes that determine how individuals approach the concept of work (Ching, 2021). As it concerns HE teachers such approach means the distinct and unique place each one sees and acts to deal with their tasks, as much as hers’ or his’ perceptions concerning the importance of such tasks.

Sociocultural perspectives of identity, conceptualize academic identity as dynamic, socially situated and constructed through the interplay of social and individual factors such as individual objectives, and agency, activities and processes, antecedents, and tensions (Choi et al, 2021). Individuals may have as many identities has the number of groups in which they are engaged, with deferent degrees of overlapping and conflict (Colbeck, 2008). Some categorizations of academic identity, focus on the multiple purposes of academic work within the HE context, such teaching, research, knowledge transfer and management (Santos et. al, 2016), however other authors emphasize the nexus between the academic and professional identities (Harness & Boyd, 2021). To find synergistic connections between multiple academic identities may contribute to the (re)professionalization of academic work (Colbeck, 2008).  

It is commonly assumed by several studies that academic identity of HE teachers is rooted in the excellence of their scientific knowledge that comes from their research (Santos et al., 2016) (Välimaa & Hoffman, 2008). More recently, since Bologna process, a large number of literature point the constrains of such view, namely regarding the lack of HE teachers’ pedagogical training (van Hattum-Janssen et al., 2012; Vieira, 2013)(McCune, 2021). . However, at least in Portugal, HE teachers are appraised not only in such two domains, but also in their participation in Academic governance bodies and in their commitment to social community (Santos et al., 2016).

A recent review of literature stress the strengths and the  constrains of the development of a teacher identity (van Lankveld et al., 2017) . The review showed that several factors contribute to the development of teacher identity. While contact with students were experienced as strengthening teacher identity, the wider context of HE was experienced as having a constraining effect. Furthermore, the impact of the direct work environment was experienced as either strengthening or constraining, depending on whether or not teaching is valued in the department. In a context of transformations of HE, the identity of HE teachers is also challenged by growing commodification and performativity (Ball, 2012), and changes in the landscape of academic research, such as increased multidisciplinarity, internationalization, competitiveness, and the need to nurture productive multisectoral interactions (Akker & Spaapen, 2017).

It is in the sequence of such demand  for the meaning of the wider context of HE that stresses teachers that this paper aims to answer the importance of teacher identity as depending also on a conceptualization of transformative knowledge (Hessels & van Lente, 2008) that can sustain a different care for teaching. Attending to this scenario, this study intends to answer to the following research questions: 1) How does the relationship between the professional field of reference and the academic activity shape the identity of the HE teacher? and 2) How does the relationship between the scientific field of reference and academic activity shape the identity of the HE teacher?

The methodological approach of present paper is the narrative inquiry. Concerning the paper’s aim it offers a particular way of caring about how knowledge is produced and the importance of the relationship between the teacher and his or hers perception of theirs professional life span. Understanding how individuals produce knowledge about their own careers and use their experiences to make sense of profession is the core of this research paradigm (Craig, 2011). Eight HE teachers (five female and 3 males, ranging between 49 and 72 years old), who started their professional careers at least 25 years ago, from different scientific areas, participated in the study. Data were collected using a narrative interview design (Rossiter, 1999) that focuses on experiences as expressed in the lived and told stories of individuals (Creswell, 2013, p. 54). The narrative interview started with the trigger question – ‘what made you become a teacher? The remaining questions were focused on the connections among knowledge production, academic research and technical, and social uses in different areas of knowledge. The individual interviews lasted between 70 minutes and 145 minutes. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, introduced in the NVivo10 data analysis software, and analysed using a thematic narrative analysis approach (Riessman, 2008). Content analysis of interviews is still running and involves various stages of coding and recoding the interview transcripts, identifying thematic categories and subcategories. The anonymity of the respondents is assured by using pseudonyms and removing from the transcripts all details that might be associated with certain individuals or institutions

Has we still have no final results of analysis we may only contribute with expected results. It was expected to get a deeper understanding of how HE teachers scientific field shape their professional identities and if the scientific field configures different forms concerning knowledge production, academic research and technical, and social uses in different areas of knowledge. This research work may contribute to the knowledge about the interplay between the HE system and the professional practice in different scientific areas. It will also be discussed the implications for HE policies and practices with impact on the academic work, on the well-being of academics and on the learning process.

Akker, W. v. d., & Spaapen, J. (2017). Productive interactions: Societal impact of academic research in the knowledge society. League of European Research Universities. https://www.leru.org/publications/productive-interactions-societal-impact-of-academic-research-in-the-knowledge-society Ball, S. J. (2012, 2012/03/01). Performativity, Commodification and Commitment: An I-Spy Guide to the Neoliberal University. British Journal of Educational Studies, 60(1), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2011.650940 Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Stanford: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Ching, G. (2021). Academic Identity and Communities of Practice: Narratives of Social Science Academics Career Decisions in Taiwan. Education Sciences, 11(8), 388. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11080388 Choi, Y., Bouwma-Gearhart, J., & Ermis, G. (2021). Doctoral students’ identity development as scholars in the education sciences. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 16, 89-125. https://doi.org/10.28945/4687 Creswell, J. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design. London: SAGE Colbeck, C. (2008), Professional identity development theory and doctoral education. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2008: 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.304 Craig, C.J. (2011), "Narrative inquiry in teaching and teacher education", Kitchen, J., C. Parker and Pushor, D. (Ed.) Narrative Inquiries into Curriculum Making in Teacher Education, Emerald, 3:19-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3687(2011)00000130005 Harness, S., & Boyd, P. (2021). Academic identities and their deployment within tutorials. International Journal of Educational Research, 108, 101777. Hessels, L. K., & van Lente, H. (2008). Re-thinking new knowledge production: A literature review and a research agenda. Research Policy, 37(4), 740–760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2008.01.008 McCune, V. (2021). Academic identities in contemporary higher education: sustaining identities that value teaching. Teaching in Higher Education, 26(1), 20–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019.1632826 Santos, C., Pereira, F., & Lopes, A. (2016). Efeitos da intensificação do trabalho no ensino superior. Revista Portuguesa de Educação, 29(1), 295. https://doi.org/10.21814/rpe.6820 Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications Rossiter, M. (1999). A narrative approach to development: Implications for adult education. Adult Education Quarterly, 1999(1), 56–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/07417139922086911 Välimaa, J., & Hoffman, D. (2008). Knowledge society discourse and higher education. Higher Education, 56(3), 265–285. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-008-9123-7 van Hattum-Janssen, N., Morgado, J. C., & Vieira, F. (2012). Academic development as educational inquiry? Insights from established practices. International Journal for Academic Development, 17(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2011.594511 van Lankveld, T., Schoonenboom, J., Volman, M., Croiset, G., & Beishuizen, J. (2017). Developing a teacher identity in the university context. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(2), 325–342. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1208154 Vieira, F. (2013). The Scholarship of Pedagogy in Adverse Settings. Em Back to the Future (pp. 257–276). SensePublishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-240-2_15