To Be Resourced or to Become a Resource: Understanding Novice University Teachers’ Resource-Mediated Identity Construction

Abstract

This article reports on a multiple-case study which aims to investigate how novice university teachers construct professional identities as they process and utilize resources to promote professional development. Data were collected from 35 novice university teachers in China through prolonged individual interviews as a major source of data, with journal entries and other written protocols as a supplement. Data analysis reveals three types of resource-mediated identities, that is, resource collectors, resource providers, and resource users. The difference between the three types of identities further shows that resource utilization can be most effectively optimized if teachers display a higher degree of autonomy deriving from their agency and proactively engage with resources to resolve specific problems in self-directed efforts. Suggestions with regard to promoting teachers’ problem awareness and improving organizational management are discussed.

Open Access Publishing and University Researchers’ Agency Towards Reshaping the Publishing Habitus

“…Most importantly, policies direct value orientation with regard to what kinds of research are published and what kinds of journals are identified as offering significant knowledge contribution (Jeater 2018). This inevitably leads to inequalities, because university researchers who represent less institutionally valued scholarship are prone to being marginalised (Xu 2021). Such an institutional value orientation, as is imposed or even enforced, is often made operationally effective via policy documents such as journal rankings.…”

“…Previous studies have examined how teacher-researchers agentically navigate contextual and personal factors to behave in certain ways in their professional practice (Hinostroza-Paredes 2021). For instance, Xu (2021) identifies the diverse manifestations of teacherresearchers' agency as they conceived and utilised professional resources in different ways in the work context. Similarly, Yuan (2021) reveals how teacher-researchers exercised agency in adapting their publishing practice as they responded to different university requirements.…”