Exploring perceptions of pracademics in an Arab context

Chaaban, Youmen; Sellami, Abdellatif; Sawalhi, Rania; ElKhouly, Marwa M.

doi:10.1108/jpcc-11-2020-0091

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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Section: Challenges and Possibilities For Professional Capital And Ed...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In their review of the literature, Hollweck et al (2021) conclude: “there remains no consistent understanding of the term, no one identifiable group of pracademics and no clear defining criteria.” Furthermore, it is not currently a term that is widely known, including globally. Authors in this Special Issue are located in Australia (four authors), Canada (two authors including myself), England (one author), Hong Kong (one author) and Scotland (one author); whereas the final paper from Chaaban et al (2021) explores the interesting and important consideration of whether the term pracademic has resonance or utility in the Arab context. In attempting to gain clarity about the concepts of pracademia and pracademic, there are two main strands of exploration throughout the Special Issue: first is conceptual discussion and definitional developments; and second is exploring and reflecting on the work of pracademics in practice.…”

Section: A Quest For Clarity In a Messy Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hollweck et al . (2021) also reinforce the nature and challenges of pracademics having multiple and changing identities, concluding “Ultimately, pracademics are different from both practitioners and academics; they possess the mindset of both, yet exclusively belong to neither group.” Interestingly, in Chaaban et al 's (2021) study of 18 participants working in teacher development:Some participants ( N = 8) could be seen as holding on to their prior identities and roles as school teachers, rather than seeking new identities as pracademics, while the other group of participants ( N = 10) readily identified with their personal definitions of “pracademic”, and felt a sense of relief for having discovered an emerging identity for themselves.…”

Section: A Quest For Clarity In a Messy Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As professional development from initial teacher training through to continuing professional learning should blend theory and practice (Darling-Hammond et al , 2017), this does seem like a fertile area for the role and work of pracademics. Chaaban et al (2021) propose the need to recruit and value pracademics for these purposes:Consequently, recruiting pracademics to work with pre-service teachers during initial teacher preparation should become rooted in university planning and policy development, not only on part-time bases during the field-based experiences, as is common practice in many universities, but more strategically by considering these professionals indispensable to the effective preparation of future teachers (Swennen et al , 2010). Equally important are the pracademics, whose main target audiences are in-service teachers.…”

Section: Challenges and Possibilities For Professional Capital And Ed...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, if people who think and act as pracademics are to be recruited into teacher education and professional learning roles, these roles and the work of pracademics has to be considered professional, legitimate, valued and needed. In Chaaban et al 's (2021) study, participants struggled with perceptions of being considered “lower status” when they moved into university roles, a feeling of being “invisible” and “unrecognized by the university community.” This is a serious issue and one that requires attention in the policies of universities and education systems and in developing career paths in the education and academic professions; it should not be left only to the individual navigation and resilience of people who choose to do this work.…”

Section: Challenges and Possibilities For Professional Capital And Ed...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Afterward? Moving onwards for developing pracademia and pracademics in education

Campbell

2022

JPCC

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IntroductionIt has been my pleasure to read and comment on the articles contained in this Special Issue of the Journal of Professional Capital and Community on the topic of Pracademia: Exploring the possibilities, power and politics of boundary-spanners straddling the worlds of practice and scholarship, guest edited by Trista Hollweck, Deborah Netolicky and Paul Campbell. When I was first asked to provide a rejoinder or afterwards for the Special Issue, I said yes as I have long been curious about the terms "pracademia" and "pracademic." I first heard the term pracademic in the early 2000s when I was working as a senior government official responsible for education research. At that time, pracademic was being used to refer to people with doctorates who were working in government (rather than academia), and the importance of valuing all roles involving connections between research, policy, and practice. Indeed, my own career has been centrally about connections and interactions between research, policy, and practice, including roles working in education systems to contribute to improvements in educational practice, as a government official and advisor informing education policies, and as a researcher and scholar seeking to contribute to the academic and education communities. Now, a couple of decades into the 21st century, Hollweck, Netolicky and Campbell argue there has been a surge-or resurgence-of interest in the concepts of "pracademia" and "pracademics" as understood and applied in the field of education. Hence, the impetus for this Special Issue contains six articles. I summarize these articles briefly below for readers who are reading this "Afterward" as a standalone article.The first article, Defining and exploring pracademia: identity, community, and engagement, is by the guest editors (Hollweck, Netolicky and Campbell). They provide a conceptual exploration of the term pracademic, including a review of relevant literatures in and beyond education, and then discussion of the definition and nature of pracademia specifically in education. They propose metaphors and key definitions and components to aid in understanding and investigating the concept of pracademics, plus draw on their own experiences as self-identified pracademics.The second article, Education focused pracademics on Twitter: building democratic fora, is also by two authors identifying as pracademics, Steven Kolber and Keith Heggart. The article is based on autoethnographic case studies of their own experiences, one as a practicing teacher and one as an early career researcher in a university, of engaging online to develop their professional learning, research engagement, and collaboration with a community of educators and researchers. Drawing on three examples of online activities-Twitter, TeachMeets and #edureading-they identify features of pracademic spaces in online fora to support networks of pracademics and contribute to the development of the education profession.The third article, Pracademic productive friction: boundary crossing and p...

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Section: Challenges and Possibilities For Professional Capital And Ed...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Quest For Clarity In a Messy Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%