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1 – 10 of over 11000The establishment of academic voice, authority and identity in international fora, this chapter argues, is both a central challenge and a central benefit of international academic…
Abstract
The establishment of academic voice, authority and identity in international fora, this chapter argues, is both a central challenge and a central benefit of international academic relations. For the presentation (of new ideas, papers, paradigms: the lifeblood of academic interchange) entails the mediation not just of a text but also of persona: both must be ‘translated’ for the ‘foreign’ and host audience; both are changed in the process. As always, that which is found, as well as lost, in translation reveals much about the essential qualities of the ‘original’: here the author's ‘original’ academic voice and identity.
This chapter draws on ethnographic and inter-cultural representational models to explore the proper form of recording and reflecting/reflecting on one particular intercultural academic encounter. It uses explanatory models drawn from Academic Literacies, Sociolinguistics and Translation Studies to try to analyse and understand the process, effect and implications of that encounter. In order to establish that which is performative in academic identity, it gives an evaluative account of what it means to lose, and regain, one's academic voice.
Julianne A. Wenner, Megan Frary and Paul J. Simmonds
Historically, graduate education’s goal was to prepare academics; now most science, technology, engineering and/or mathematics (STEM) graduate students (GSs) go on to nonacademic…
Abstract
Purpose
Historically, graduate education’s goal was to prepare academics; now most science, technology, engineering and/or mathematics (STEM) graduate students (GSs) go on to nonacademic careers. STEM GSs must be equipped for success regardless of career aspirations, which can be done by strengthening GSs’ professional identities. This study aims to explore an interdisciplinary partnership designed to strengthen STEM GS professional identity.
Design/methodology/approach
The STEM Partnership Project (SPP), asked STEM GSs to serve as disciplinary experts and teach STEM content to elementary teacher candidates (TCs) so the TCs could design and teach an elementary science lesson. GSs also enrolled in a one-credit course to support SPP participation and activities. Over five semesters, the authors collected data from 28 STEM GSs across different disciplines and degree programs in the form of course assignments, surveys and interviews.
Findings
The SPP supported the development of a professional identity by having GSs serve as and feel like experts; increasing GSs’ sense of belonging in their field; increasing GSs’ self-confidence that they could (learn to) teach a wide variety of audiences; and raising GSs’ awareness of their ability to serve others via their field.
Originality/value
The SPP’s outcomes were consistent across STEM disciplines, did not require GSs to take on large amounts of coursework, nor did it cost much beyond materials for the various lessons. Furthermore, the key components that strengthened GSs’ professional identities could be adapted for different contexts and institutions.
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This chapter seeks to contribute to an ongoing discussion about Asian Canadian identities, model minority stereotypes, and structural racism against Asian Canadian youth in the…
Abstract
This chapter seeks to contribute to an ongoing discussion about Asian Canadian identities, model minority stereotypes, and structural racism against Asian Canadian youth in the Canadian education system. Using a Bourdieusian lens, this narrative study explores how to understand the experiences of Asian Canadian youth who are streamed into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)-related occupational trajectories. Using data obtained from semi-structured interviews, I explore how streaming in high schools affects the identity formation of these youth. I argue there is an insight to be gained by paying closer attention to homologies between racial tensions and disciplinary tensions within the public school system. Doing so opens up new ways of framing and recognizing partial and diffuse acts of resistance among Asian Canadian youth who would otherwise appear to have internalized dominant stereotypes and norms.
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This article aims to advance comprehension of corporate brands via the adoption of identity‐based perspectives of corporate brands. It aims to outline a normative, diagnostic…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to advance comprehension of corporate brands via the adoption of identity‐based perspectives of corporate brands. It aims to outline a normative, diagnostic, model of corporate brand management – The AC4ID Test. The origins of the model date back to the late 1990s. The model is predicated on the need to understand the seven identity types forming a corporate brand constellation. The seven corporate brand identity facets are the actual, communicated, conceived, covenanted, cultural, ideal and desired corporate brand identities. As a general but not an absolute rule there should be meaningfully strategic alignment between the corporate brand and other identity modes in the corporate brand constellation. The notion of temporal misalignment is also articulated. Temporal misalignment is important since different identity types inhabit diverse time frames and, sometimes, temporal misalignment can be perilous (it is often a necessary dynamic too). The notion of the identity‐wheel of change is articulated: a change of one identity may trigger a chain reaction throughout the corporate brand identity constellation.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is enlightened by extant research and conceptualisations on corporate brands and corporate branding theories. It is also informed by recent, cross‐disciplinary reviews of the identity literatures. The AC4ID Test framework incorporates recent insights vis‐à‐vis the diagnostic framework in corporate branding contexts.
Findings
Adopting identity‐based perspectives of corporate brands provides an advance in terms of our comprehension of them. A corporate brand can be viewed as a distinct identity type. An identity mode that is capable of being separate and divisible from the corporate identity from which it is derived. Corporate brands have multiple/attendant identities, which may be characterised as a constellation of corporate brand identities: these identities inform the identity of the AC4ID Test of Corporate Brand Management.
Originality/value
The AC4ID Test corporate brand identity framework outlined in this article draws on recent advances in the field and adapts earlier versions of the framework so that it has a utility for the corporate branding domain.
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Miriam Zukas and Janice Malcolm
This paper aims to examine the everyday practices of academic work in social science to understand better academics’ learning. It also asks how academic work is enacted in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the everyday practices of academic work in social science to understand better academics’ learning. It also asks how academic work is enacted in relation to the discipline, department and university, taking temporality as its starting point.
Design/methodology/approach
The study sought to trace academic activities in practice. Within three universities, 14 academics were work-shadowed; social, material, technological, pedagogic and symbolic actors were observed and where possible connections and interactions were traced (including beyond the institution). This paper reports on a subset of the study: the academic practices of four early-career academics in one discipline are analysed.
Findings
Email emerges as a core academic practice and an important pedagogic actor for early career academics in relation to the department and university. Much academic work is “work about the work”, both in and outside official work time. Other pedagogic actors include conferences, networks and external Web identities. Disciplinary work happens outside official work time for the most part and requires time to be available. Disciplinary learning is therefore only afforded to some, resulting in structural disadvantage.
Originality/value
By tracing non-human and human actors, it has emerged that the department and university, rather than the discipline, are most important in composing everyday work practices. A sociomaterial approach enables researchers to better understand the “black box” of everyday academic practice. Such an approach holds the promise of better support for academics in negotiating the demands of discipline, department and university without overwork and systemic exploitation.
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Kirstin Wilmot and Sioux McKenna
In the context of rapid change in higher education, there is a great demand for powerful theory and methods to address key issues, particularly related to teaching and learning…
Abstract
In the context of rapid change in higher education, there is a great demand for powerful theory and methods to address key issues, particularly related to teaching and learning. This chapter traces the uptake of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) in higher education studies in South Africa to make sense of how and why this theory has become so popular. LCT draws on the works of Bernstein and Bourdieu to provide a powerful theoretical and analytical toolkit with which to analyse social practices. In the chapter, we argue that the attraction of this theory is that it attends to a ‘knowledge blindness’ whereby much higher education research, particularly that focussed on teaching and learning, fails to consider the nature and effects of the discipline or field being learned. The use of this theory is illustrated in the chapter by reference to a number of publications. In doing so, we illustrate the importance of conceptual tools that allow an interrogation of what we are teaching, who we are teaching and how this social practice takes place.
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Learning-via-gaming is an emerging area of interest and research within kindergarten to grade 12 (k-12), in US schools. As a vital part of the k-12 instructional mission, school…
Abstract
Learning-via-gaming is an emerging area of interest and research within kindergarten to grade 12 (k-12), in US schools. As a vital part of the k-12 instructional mission, school libraries are exploring the potential role of videogames in mediating information-oriented skills development. Although the general concept of learning-via-gaming is not new to school libraries (e.g., library review card games), empirical knowledge of videogames’ representational landscapes is needed to assist school librarians in developing instructional programming. This study examined representations of information across three distinct genres of mainstream videogames (shooters, action-adventure, and role-playing). Specifically, qualitative content analysis was used to examine the types of inscribed, information resources that players could use to generate solutions during problem-solving events. Across the three video gaming genres studied, there were seven strata of information: socially constructed, interpersonal, environmental, process, resource, task, and symbolic stratums. The results of this study could assist school librarians in (1) designing instructional lessons around videogames and/or (2) guiding students through the process of transporting meanings from the domain of gaming to other domains (e.g., academic, community, and everyday information problem-solving).
John A. Gonzalez, Heeyun Kim and Allyson Flaster
The purpose of this study is to examine doctoral students’ developmental trajectories in well-being and disciplinary identity during the first three years of doctoral study.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine doctoral students’ developmental trajectories in well-being and disciplinary identity during the first three years of doctoral study.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies on data from a longitudinal study of PhD students enrolled at a large, research-intensive university in the USA. A group-based trajectory modeling approach is used to examine varying trajectories of well-being and disciplinary identity.
Findings
The authors find that students’ physical health, mental health and disciplinary identity generally decline during the first few years of doctoral study. Despite this common downward trend, the results suggest that six different developmental trajectories exist. Students’ backgrounds and levels of stress, psychological needs satisfaction, anticipatory socialization experiences and prior academic success predict group membership.
Originality/value
Although there is emergent evidence of a mental health crisis in graduate education scant evidence exists about the way in which well-being changes over time as students progress through their doctoral studies. There is also little evidence of how these changes might be related to academic processes such as the development of disciplinary identity. This study reported varying baseline degrees of well-being and disciplinary identity and offers that stress and unmet psychological needs might be partially responsible for varying trajectories.
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Allyson Flaster, Kristen M. Glasener and John A. Gonzalez
The purpose of this study is to examine whether there are differences in beginning doctoral students’ perceptions of the disciplinary knowledge required to be successful in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine whether there are differences in beginning doctoral students’ perceptions of the disciplinary knowledge required to be successful in doctoral education and identify pre-doctoral characteristics and experiences that explain these differences.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relied on survey data of first-year PhD students enrolled at a large, research-intensive university. Survey responses were matched to institutional information, missing data were imputed and responses were weighted to account for groups’ differential probabilities of being included in the analytical sample. The authors used regression analysis to examine the relationship between students’ background characteristics, anticipatory socialization experiences, academic performance and perceived levels of disciplinary knowledge.
Findings
The study findings indicated significant differences in doctoral students’ perceived levels of disciplinary knowledge. Students who identify as female or URM had significantly lower levels of perceived disciplinary knowledge than students who identify as male or non-URM. Moreover, several anticipatory socialization experiences were significantly and positively related to perceived disciplinary knowledge.
Originality/value
While there is evidence that doctoral students start graduate school with varying identities and experiences, little is known about how students perceive their abilities and knowledge. This study reported that students differ in their self-assessment of disciplinary knowledge as they embark on doctoral work with implications for academic identity development and student success.
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