From apprentice to colleague: The metamorphosis of Early Career Researchers

Abstract

While the studies of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) have contributed politically important insights into factors hindering ECRs, they have not yet achieved a theoretical understanding of the causal mechanisms that are at work in the transition from dependent to independent research. This paper positions the early career phase in a theoretical framework that combines approaches from the sociology of science and organisational sociology and emphasises the transitional process. In this framework, the early career phase is considered as containing a status passage from the apprentice to the colleague state of their career in their scientific communities. In order to capture the mechanisms underlying this transition, it is important to analyse the interactions of these careers as they unfold over time. The usefulness of this approach is demonstrated with a pilot study of Australian ECRs. We show (a) that misalignments of the three careers stretch the transition phase; (b) that the two major factors affecting the transition are a successful PhD and a research-intensive phase prior to normal academic employment; and (c) that the most important condition hindering the transition is the lack of time for research. It can be concluded that as a result of a 'market failure' of the university system, the transition from dependent to independent research is currently being relocated to a phase between the PhD and the first academic position.

Enacting Efficacy in Early Career: Narratives of Agency, Growth, and Identity

“…Once a graduate student has been fully socialized into the profession, the next major developmental task is to transition from the dependent researcher status of graduate school to the independent status of an academic career (Laudel & Gläser, 2007). Unfortunately, there is often a substantial disconnect between graduate school and the realities of faculty positions (Austin et al, 2007).…”

Doctoral students’ well-being: a literature review

“…Lease, 1999; Petersen, 2011; Salmela-Aro, Tolvanen, & Nurmi, 2011). These early years, i.e., the years spent on PhD studies, are usually associated with a transition from dependence to independence, i.e., from the student role to the professional academic role (Laudel & Gläser, 2008), and it is in the intersection of this transition, and its associated decisions and uncertainties, the future well-being of aspiring academics possibly develops (Schmidt & Umans, 2014; Stubb, Pyhältö, & Lonka, 2011). …”

"Hear our voices": a collective arts-based self-study of early-career academics on our learning and growth in a research-intensive university

“…While there seem to be different perspectives on the needs of ECAs, there is a common understanding that many ECAs lack research networks and remain poorly informed about the structures and culture of academic institutions (Geber, 2009;Hemmings & Kay, 2010). Resonating with Hemmings and Kay (2010), Laudel and Gläser (2008) stressed that ECAs continue to be the most defenceless group in universities because they more easily experience anxiety compared to experienced scholars; they experience job insecurity, workload pressures, and professional isolation (Price et al, 2015). This possibly also resonates from "the pressure to publish and increased demands for accountability" (Pithouse-Morgan, Naicker, Pillay, Masinga & Hlao, 2016, p. 3).…”