Academic And Professional Identities In Higher Education

The latest volume in the Routledge International Studies in Higher Education Series, Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce, reviews the implications of new forms of academic and professional identity, which have emerged largely as a result of a broadening disciplinary base and increasing permeability between higher education and external environments. The volume addresses the challenges faced by those responsible for the wellbeing of academic faculty and professional staff. International perspectives examine current practice against a background of rapidly changing policy contexts, focusing on the critical ‘people dimension’ of enhancing academic and professional activity, while also addressing national, socio-economic, and community agendas. Consideration is given to mainstream academic faculty and professional staff, researchers, library and information professionals, people with an interest in teaching and learning, and those involved in individual projects or institutional development. The following provide the key themes of Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce: The implications of diversifying academic and professional identities for the functioning of higher education institutions and sectors. The pace and nature of such change in different institutional systems and environments. The challenges to institutional systems and structures from emergent identities and possible tensions, and how these might be addressed. The implications of blurring academic and professional identities, with a shift towards mixed or ‘blended’ roles, for individual careers and institutional development.

In this book, first-hand accounts from academics and practitioners explore the concept of "professional identity development" in the context of higher education and provide guidance to develop and enhance professionalism. The Development of Professional Identity in Higher Education presents a new understanding of identity development. Highlighting the importance of building positive identities in the development of a professional career, it argues for a reframing of the way academics think of themselves, suggesting the role of "practitioner" as one in which there is a continuous need to develop their professionalism as it connects to their daily practices and different identities. With contributions from a range of international authors, it demonstrates how professional development can change our beliefs and perceptions of the profession itself, whether it be through on-the-job instruction aimed at making teachers/researchers better, or through "self-learning" whereby teachers and researchers learn to develop and enhance their teaching and research competency through daily activities and self-analysis. This book will be of great interest to researchers and graduate and postgraduate students in teacher education and professional development.

First Published in 2013. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In this timely and innovative book scholars from Europe, the UK, North America and Australia, explore their own sense of identity, reflecting both on their research and scholarly interests, and their work experiences. Taking the form of a debate, Changing Identities in Higher Education helps to widen the contemporary space for debates on the future of higher education itself. The book is split into three parts: part one presents a set of essays each on a set of identities within higher education (academic, student, administrative/managerial and educational developers). part two includes responses to Part one from authors speaking from their own professional and scholarly identity perspective part three illustrates perspectives on the identities of students, provided by students themselves. With its original, dialogic form and varied content, this book is of interest to all those concerned in current debates about the state and nature of higher education today and those interested in questions of identity. It makes especially useful reading for students of higher education, lecturers in training, academics and managers alike.

In higher education, professional online identities have become increasingly important. A rightly worded tweet can cause an academic blog post to go viral. A wrongly worded tweet can get a professor fired. Regular news items in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed provide evidence that reputations are both built and crushed via online platforms. Ironically, given the importance of digital identities to job searches, the promotion and distribution of scholarly work, pedagogical innovation, and many other components of an academic life, higher education professionals receive little to no training about how to best represent themselves in a digital space. Managing Your Professional Identity Online: A Guide for Higher Education fills this gap by offering higher education professionals the information and guidance they need to: craft strong online biographical statements for a range of platforms; prioritize where and how they want to represent themselves online in a professional capacity; intentionally and purposefully create an effective brand for their professional identity online; develop online profiles that are consistent, professional, accurate, organized, of good quality, and representative of their academic lives; regularly update and maintain an online presence; post appropriately in a range of online platforms and environments; and

This work looks at the classical notion of academic identity, the paradoxical idea of strong individuals within a community of equals, and examines the extent to which this is reflected in reality. The author argues that the higher education reforms and consequent changes in the academic community have created an impetus towards a more structured environment, encouraging new, professional academic identities. She also asks whether the reforms have made the institution more important than the disciplines.

Imagined at their best, how might professions contribute most effectively to their local and global communities, and how could higher education support graduates/future professionals in making this contribution? The answer proposed in this book is to educate students for ‘civic-mindedness’, an overarching professional capability grounded in certain dispositions and qualities, ideals, types of knowledge and political emotions. ‘Civic-mindedness’, and its internal counterpart, the practitioner’s self-cultivation, give rise to an engagement with professional practice that is authentic, civic and democratic. The tension between responsiveness or regard for others and regard for self is overcome by recognising that authentic professional identities are constructed through practices around shared purposes and ideals. Drawing on a wide range of theorists including Dewey, Arendt, and Nussbaum, professions are envisaged to play a vital role. Primarily professions support society’s well-being by ensuring access to public goods, such as local and global justice, access to information, health, education, safety, housing, the beauty and sustaining power of the ecological environment, among others. Yet professions also protect the fundamental good of citizen participation in free deliberation and decision-making on issues affecting their lives. The book concludes with a vision of higher education that is transformative of graduates/professionals, pedagogies, professional practices and communities. Issues of increasing social awareness are a key concern for anyone involved in teaching professionals and this book, which builds best practice around a sound theoretical and philosophical framework, will prove both thought-provoking and practical in application.

This book is the first of several with the results of a collaborative European project supported by the European Science Foundation on changes in the academic profession in Europe (EUROAC). It provides a short description of the ESF EUROHESC programme and the particular forms of international collaborative research projects which are funded under the umbrella of this programme. It then outlines the EUROAC project. This project has chosen three foci (governance, professionalisation, academic careers) to analyse changes in the work of the academic profession. The first results in the form of in-depth literature reviews constitute the content of the book. These eight literature reviews about the state of the art of existing research feature the various dimensions of the overall theme. A particular emphasis is put on factors leading to changes in the work tasks of the academic profession in Europe and how the academic profession is coping with these new challenges. Thus, the book provides a state of the art account of existing research about the following themes: main results of previous studies on the academic profession; the academic profession and their interaction with new higher education professionals; professional identities in higher education; extending work tasks: civic mission and sustainable development; academic careers in academic markets; the changing role of academics in the face of rising managerialism; the influence of quality assurance, governance, and relevance on the satisfaction of the academic profession.