Early career academics learning the game in Whackademia

McKay, Loraine; Monk, Sue

doi:10.1080/07294360.2017.1303460

Cited by 42 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The current study explores ECAs perceptions of their work environment along with their beliefs about their future career development, then explores relationships between these factors and intrapersonal personality dimensions. This study focuses on two Universities in England and aligns with a growing interest in the experiences of ECAs across multiple international contexts, including Spain (Castelló, McAlpine, and Pyhältö 2017), Australia (Bosanquet et al 2017;McKay and Monk 2017), and Canada (Acker and Webber 2017), as well as the UK (Smith 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Overwhelmed at first’: the experience of career development in early career academics

Hollywood

McCarthy

Spencely

et al. 2019

Journal of Further and Higher Education

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The higher education sector is undergoing considerable changes to its working conditions. From regular scrutiny of individual research and teaching quality, audits of individual academic performance, to growing expectations arising from the culture of 'student experience', it is widely recognised that higher education is a turbulent sector. Amongst Early Career Academics (ECAs), initial transitions into this sector of work can have considerable consequences for career development and willingness to remain within the higher education profession. Drawing on a mixedmode survey exploring the experience of UK-based ECAs, we highlight distinct intrapersonal and experiential factors which relate to variations in the perceived potential for career development and wellbeing. The data suggest that it is not just situational factors such as the departmental environment and job security that relate to the 'imagined futures' of ECAs; it is also important to gain a deeper understanding of how intrapersonal dimensions, such as an individual's personality, shape the experience of the early stages of an academic career. Our qualitative data shed further light on the experiences that can influence the job satisfaction of ECAs. The findings are discussed in the context of a growing body of international research on ECAs, and the rapidly changing Higher Education sector in the UK. ARTICLE HISTORY

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confidence: 99%

‘Overwhelmed at first’: the experience of career development in early career academics

Hollywood

McCarthy

Spencely

et al. 2019

Journal of Further and Higher Education

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“…In light of recent decades of change within higher education in Europe and elsewhere (Åkerlind, 2005;McKay & Monk, 2017), new ways of understanding academic work also influence how social capital is thought to be involved and can be perceived (Maritz & Prinsloo, 2015). The academic career path has been refashioned, as have the meaning and effect of social capital, which may more than ever play a crucial role in how career success is shaped (Berger, Benschop, & van den Brink, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic career: on institutions, social capital and gender

Angervall

Gustafsson

Silfver

2018

Higher Education Research & Development

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During decades of change in the Western higher education sector, new ways of understanding academic work have reinforced notions of the impact of social capital. The present study investigates researchers' experiences of their own career making within two areas of Education Sciences in Swedish higher education: Childhood Studies (CS) and Science Education (SE). The structure at the CS departments is collaborative and integrated; teaching and research are seen as an entity. This structure creates a coherent career path where members of the collective group jointly produce and accumulate social capital; it also appears to be related to discourses of femininity. In the SE departments, the career structure is strategic and differentiated; the two career paths work in parallel through a differentiation between teaching and research. This appears to be related to discourses of masculinity.In conclusion, our analysis shows how social capital and gender mutually create different ways of doing an academic career. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…This will assist in preparing beginning lecturers for the transition from a PhD, or post-doctorate, for example, to a lectureship. This is important, because the transition from being a doctoral student to an early career academic is currently considered to be characterised by naivety and confusion (McKay and Monk, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reflections are included of my experiences with both undergraduate teaching and assessment. Most studies, to-date, have focused on 'older' academics and their responses to the 'new times' of contemporary academia, or what has been referred to elsewhere as "whackademia" (McKay andMonk, 2017:1251). However, as Archer (2008) questions, what about the 'new' generation of academics who have only experienced the current Higher Education context?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The story of Samantha: the teaching performances and inauthenticities of an early career human geography lecturer

Wilkinson

2018

Higher Education Research & Development

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This paper offers an autoethnographic account of my first academic year as a Human Geography lecturer at a 'new' public university in the North West of England. This research is timely and much needed, since teaching at universities in England has recently come under increasing scrutiny. The Teaching Excellence Framework is a new scheme, which aims to recognise and reward excellence in teaching, learning, and outcomes, and helps to inform student choice. This paper is theoretically framed by working at the intersection of Goffman's (1959:79) notion of "theatrical performance", and Butler's (1990) theory of performativity. This paper offers insight into the coping strategies, in respect of teaching, that I deployed as a new university lecturer. Findings are discussed around the themes of: performing teaching identities, and inauthenticity. With regard to performing teaching identities, this paper discusses the need for identity to be multiple and shifting, and how, as a young female, I undertook identity work, in order to perform competence. I also bring to the fore feelings of inauthenticity; that is, how I did not feel as if I was a genuine academic, and how I fabricated / falsified aspects of my academic identity in order to 'fit in' with the expectations of both students and staff. As the voice of a new lecturer in her first year of teaching, this paper makes a useful contribution to the scholarship on early career academics and teaching development. This paper concludes with recommendations for change in practice-based settings, in order to assist new lecturers to settle into the job role, and enhance and enrich teaching practice.

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Early career academics learning the game in Whackademia

Cited by 42 publications

References 26 publications

‘Overwhelmed at first’: the experience of career development in early career academics

‘Overwhelmed at first’: the experience of career development in early career academics

Academic career: on institutions, social capital and gender

The story of Samantha: the teaching performances and inauthenticities of an early career human geography lecturer

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