1. In limbo? Practitioners who teach
Professional identities and professional development
Standing Conference on Academic Practice, Warwick, July 2016

2. Perspectives on belonging
Socialisation/acculturation into HE
eg Akerlind 2004; Knight & Trowler 1999:24
‘Good mentoring and induction routines…..are most potent within activity systems, such as departments, that constitute professional communities and which are sites of professional learning.’
Individual identity
eg Lave and Wenger 1998; Clegg 2008
Nature of the academic role
Changing parameters (past, present, future)
Different expectations and understandings
Security, status, accountability
The ‘pracademic’

3. Professional practice
‘Pracademic’?
Professional practice
Disciplinary context
HE context

4. Practice and teaching Relationships
asymmetrical (practice knowledge or practice experience)
symmetrical (balanced but distinct)
holistic (no boundaries)
Identity trajectories
inbound
boundary
peripheral
outbound
(or disengaged)

5. Key questions How individuals see their roles
Combining professional practice and HE: complementary or contradictory?
Role of formal and informal professional development

6. Methodology Responses elicited by E-questionnaire (50 responses)
10 semi-structured interviews with academic and teaching staff
Range of UK institutions: pre- and post- ‘92 universities, specialist institutions

7. Key findings (1) Perceived advantages for students are very clear
The more experience staff had of balancing both roles, the more ambivalent they felt about the benefits for them
Respondents reported
a strong sense of personal satisfaction through engaging with students
a lack of institutional recognition -> alienation from HEI in general

8. Key findings (2)
Scope for intellectual exploration and identification of synergy between HE teaching and professional practice
-> personal satisfaction
Constraints of time and resources

9. For example
‘I have ended up feeling like neither fish not fowl...someone who does not fit in either category, but I don’t say that in any negative sense because I don’t see how it could be otherwise.‘ ‘(It) enables me to continue work which I have enjoyed for over thirty years [but which] detracts from my available time for research and is not deemed as producing impact.’ ’I see an incredibly strong relationship between my professional practice and my teaching.’

10. The ‘Pracademic’ revisited
50%: Asymmetrical and on the boundaries of several communities 35%: Symmetrical and on the boundaries or peripheral from choice ’Belonging to two communities is by far the most relevant factor (although)time/ financial/ personal resources constraints affect the performance and participation in both.’ 10%: Balanced but separate and peripheral from choice 5%: Holistic and outside ’In many respects I just feel a total fraud.’

11. Locations of professional learning
Colleagues ’Participating in the wider academic community for me has always been a lot less formal but also important.’ ’Informal groupings are a lot more frequent and carry more weight...but they are estranged from institutions in the general sense.’ Teaching ‘…proximity to student work... helping people wrap their heads around complex issues, that’s the most rewarding for me.’ Institutional behaviour Recognition, reward, acknowledgement of both roles, of competing priorities and value of multiple identities. ‘Where these different aspects of one’s identity are not reconciled, there appears to be less than satisfactory engagement in academia.’ (Shreeve 2011:87)

12. Implications
Professional development which acknowledges different dimensions and interrelationship of multiple roles
Initial and ongoing processes to interrogate shared (shifting) understandings
Future-proofing newer entrants’ career development
Recognition and reward structures