The contemporary academic: orientation towards research work and researcher identity of higher education lecturers in the health professions

Abstract

Boyd, Pete and Smith, Caroline (2016) The contemporary academic: orientation towards research work and researcher identity of higher education lecturers in the health professions. Studies in Higher Education, 41 (4). pp. 678-695.Downloaded from: http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/1671/ Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria's institutional repository 'Insight' must conform to the following fair usage guidelines.Any item and its associated metadata held in the University of Cumbria's institutional repository Insight (unless stated otherwise on the metadata record) may be copied, displayed or performed, and stored in line with the JISC fair dealing guidelines (available here) for educational and not-for-profit activities provided that• the authors, title and full bibliographic details of the item are cited clearly when any part of the work is referred to verbally or in the written form AbstractInternationally, the increasing emphasis in universities on the quality of teaching, on student employability and on a corporate approach to entrepreneurial income generation, has created a tension around the primacy afforded to published research outputs as a focus for academic work and status. In this study a framework for academic socialisation is developed and used to understand how lecturers in health professional fields attempt to 'juggle' four areas of work -teaching, leadership, knowledge exchange and research activity. Studying academics in professional fields, with a well-developed focus on employability and strong partnerships with employers, provides useful insight into contemporary academic work and identity. A significant proportion of lecturers in health professional fields, even of those working in research intensive universities, appear to 'subvert' the paradigmatic primacy afforded across the higher education sector to research outputs and identity as a researcher.

The transition from a university college to a university: a United Kingdom study

“…This finding is consistent with the work of Boyd and Smith (2014), who reported the subversion of institutional goals of achieving research outputs and identifying as researchers by academics. Culture drag is a relatively new notion and as far as we are aware has not been applied in studies of academic institutional change, and therefore needs to be addressed in the near future.…”

Patchwork quilt or woven cloth? The student experience of coping with assessment across disciplines

“…The many influences on academic ways of knowing and practicing should be acknowledged. Boyd and Smith (2016) highlight other important social and cultural influences including the orientation of an individual academic's work between teaching, research and administration. In addition, an increasingly managerial and commercial emphasis in higher education (O'Donovan, 2017) nowadays may (and may even seek to) diminish academic autonomy and the influence of the discipline on structures and processes.…”

“…In addition, an increasingly managerial and commercial emphasis in higher education (O'Donovan, 2017) nowadays may (and may even seek to) diminish academic autonomy and the influence of the discipline on structures and processes. However, Boyd and Smith (2016) note the dangers of underplaying the significance of differences between subject disciplines and their effect on academic identities as well as organisational structures and processes.…”

Ethical dilemmas associated wih hyper-structured student research

“…The massification model of higher education places strain on academics as enrolments increase while the number of academics and available resources remain static or even decrease (Boyd and Smith 2016;Hornsby and Osman 2014;Albertyn, Machika and Troskie-de Bruin 2016).…”