The ‘double-edged sword’ of a sessional academic career

Richardson, Julia; Wardale, Dorothy; Lord, Linley

doi:10.1080/07294360.2018.1545749

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…(Nathan)These stories echo comparable concerns expressed by Canadian Education PhD candidates, who refer to the ‘bitter, resentful, strained’ world of ‘sessional hell, sessional purgatory’ they encountered as untenured academics (Acker and Haque, 2017: 111). Similarly, research into the experiences of casual teaching staff in a Business School reports on the frustrations of precarious academic work (Richardson et al., 2018). As a result of these kinds of experiences, the participants in the current study sought work elsewhere.…”

Section: What Experiences Pushed Them Out Of Academia?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stories of moving on HASS PhD graduates’ motivations and career trajectories inside and beyond academia

Guerin

2019

Arts and Humanities in Higher Education

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It is widely accepted that the academic job market is very limited and unlikely to expand any time soon, yet enrolments in PhDs continue to rise. If the PhD is no longer preparation for academia, where do these graduates go on completing their degrees? This study of Australian PhD graduates in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) explores motivations to undertake a research degree, their experiences of academia, and their current employment. These personalised narratives reveal the impact and value of doctoral education on the employment trajectories of HASS PhD graduates in non-academic careers. These stories uncover both the ‘cruel optimism’ and positive employment outcomes experienced by HASS doctorate holders. It is argued that commencing PhD candidates should be encouraged from the outset to seriously consider their doctorate as preparation for careers beyond academia; rather than being ‘failed academics,’ these graduates succeed as high-level knowledge workers.

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Section: What Experiences Pushed Them Out Of Academia?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stories of moving on HASS PhD graduates’ motivations and career trajectories inside and beyond academia

Guerin

2019

Arts and Humanities in Higher Education

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“…The third theme, the impact of choosing flexible work options, was often negative. While there was evidence that certain women chose to work as casuals or sessionals as a way of managing work and other responsibilities, it was a double-edged sword ( Richardson et al, 2019 ). Strachan et al (2016) and Crimmins (2016) would argue that sessional workers in HE were not sessional by choice, although some might choose casual employment as an entry level position into academia but then end up being trapped.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is estimated that in some Australian universities more than 80% of staff under the age of 30 are insecurely employed ( Bone, 2019 ). Casual academic work can be a “double-edged sword” ( Richardson et al, 2019 ). While some enjoy the flexibility of not having to attend meetings and annual performance reviews, they miss out on being part of an academic community which includes opportunities for conference travel, professional development and promotion.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Womens’ Career Progression in an Australian Regional University

White

Goriss‐Hunter

2021

Front. Sociol.

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This article examines the link between terms of employment (full time, part time and casual) at an Australian regional university and women’s career progression. The literature identifies lack of transparency in recruitment, promotion and retention; mobility and location; and management perceptions of women’s choice to work flexibly as factors impacting on career progression. However, the voices of women working in regional universities and particularly those of professional staff are often not present in current research. This study moves towards addressing this research deficit. Feminist institutionalism is used to analyse the relationship between national legislation, university policies and informal institutional practices in relation to women’s career progression In early 2020, twenty-one women provided written responses to questions on the link between terms of employment and career progression. The main findings tend to support other research about women working in universities; that is, carers need flexible work arrangements. But there are particular differences for women in regional universities who have to travel between dispersed campuses, which brings an added dimension of complexity to career progression. Their choices about terms of employment and fulfilling carer responsibilities resulted in insecure employment for some participants which had an impact on wellbeing and confidence. In addition, care/household responsibilities and the choice to work flexibly had a negative effect on career progression, and managers did not necessarily support flexible work options (despite national legislation that enables employees with child care responsibilities to negotiate flexible work arrangements with managers, and institutional gender equality policies).

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“…Although the research landscape is changing, with implications for future teaching practices in universities, the ways in which governments, universities and academic disciplines document and reward societal impact are slow to follow (Given et al 2015). This comes at a time when the academic workforce is more precarious than ever (Richardson et al 2019;Long 2018) with fewer researchers employed in full-time continuing roles. This leaves PhD-trained academics to take on very high teaching loads, with little or no time to devote to research activities, and few opportunities to engage with policy-makers and other potential beneficiaries of research outcomes.…”

Section: The Research Puzzle Piecementioning

confidence: 99%

The societal impact puzzle: a snapshot of a changing landscape across education and research

Carson

Given

2021

Policy Design and Practice

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The term 'impact' is everywhere. Organizations and individuals want to fund projects for impact, measure impact, and showcase the impact of effort, expertise and financial investment, but clear definitions and understandings of what having an impact really means for people and institutions appear lacking or ad-hoc. This paper explores 'impact' in the areas of education and research into government practice. For governments, the impact agenda involves operating in increasingly tight fiscal environments with mounting pressure to articulate and demonstrate return on investment. For education providers, there are increasing calls to justify and prove why investment in education is an efficient and effective endeavor. For universities, this includes a shift from a traditional publication-focused research impact culture to a wider societal impact one that demonstrates direct and indirect benefits to society. This paper conceptualizes impact as a "puzzle" with many pieces, with education and research making up key pieces that can and need to fit together better. In doing so, the paper identifies four problem areas to help guide thinking toward clarity about what 'impact' entails. To aid collective progress in this space, we detail key issues facing the education and research sectors. Based on our analysis we arrive at a set of questions intended to help guide thinking and actions toward collectively increasing the ability to generate and demonstrate the impact of both into government practice and society at large.

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The ‘double-edged sword’ of a sessional academic career

Cited by 29 publications

References 26 publications

Stories of moving on HASS PhD graduates’ motivations and career trajectories inside and beyond academia

Stories of moving on HASS PhD graduates’ motivations and career trajectories inside and beyond academia

Womens’ Career Progression in an Australian Regional University

The societal impact puzzle: a snapshot of a changing landscape across education and research

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