Is now the time to reflect and refocus on professional development?
There are numerous reports outlining the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on women’s career progression. Academia is no different. Reports of increases in publications for men but reductions for women, and wider impact on gender equality in the HE workplace have done little to ease anxieties about reward, recognition, and progression.
This blog presents three short vignettes of female academics - Liz Austin; Jill Dickinson; Teri-Lisa Griffiths - who together reflected on their higher education journeys and hope that others may be encouraged to do the same. They challenge traditional definitions of the ‘academic’ and explore how their values and identity are maintained as they move through different institutional spaces. As they continue to work together on projects, they recognise the value of diverse academic identities, skills, experience, knowledge, and networks.
Jill:
As a solicitor, I particularly enjoyed supporting trainees and work placement students with their career and professional development. This led to my move into academia and continues to be a key driver. As a practitioner-turned-lecturer or ‘pracademic’, I quickly found myself juggling a raft of teaching and learning responsibilities with professional development opportunities that, I felt, I needed as an academic.
I led courses through revalidation and created new modules ‘from scratch’ while studying part-time for the PGCert and Doctorate, applying for professional recognition through Advance HE, and working towards the REF. Conscious of sector pressures to achieve a doctorate, while recognising the demands of combining a full-time lecturing role with part-time studies, one particularly important discovery for me was the PhD by Publication route. It provided multiple benefits, not least because I could count my publications towards completion of the doctorate. My research encompasses law, space and place, and higher education (particularly professional development).
Through this research, I am currently working with a central directorate; supporting teams across the University and further afield on developing, evaluating, and/or disseminating learning about interventions to improve student outcomes. This fixed term secondment is proving invaluable for further fostering a dual departmental/central institutional perspective; building associated networks; and developing multi-disciplinary collaborations that involve students, staff and external partners. Through this role, I have enjoyed continuing to support others with their professional development; for example, through working in partnership with students as researchers and graduate interns, and this inspires my own professional development.
Liz:
I arrived in higher education to what I then considered a ‘traditional’ academic lecturing post. I was overwhelmed with teaching responsibilities. My progression was through the management of teaching delivery, rather than research. I left it too long to reawaken my disciplinary inquiry and began (reluctantly at first, I’ll admit) to develop a research profile in learning and teaching. I moved into a central directorate after 10 years in my discipline, keen to learn about the world beyond my departmental silo. In this transition, I believed it was important to maintain my academic contract and aspects of this identity. As I progressed to a senior level role, I amassed a messy combination of research and teaching and learning, focusing on student experiences and the whole student lifecycle. I began searching for a thread which connected my practices. My professional development often focuses on developing this connection.
I am hopeful for a time when the term ‘academic’ is more inclusive of non-traditional trajectories and new and emerging roles. Evolving professional opportunities tend to fill a role in an organisational establishment rather than identify or cement a career path. They can be perceived as on the ‘fringe’, and this can be draining for those involved. But as I (re)search for my identity, my own values become clearer. My commitment to social justice and the ethics of working with students, as examples. I am less clear on my future progression routes, but I have realised that I can carve out a path, own it, and support others to follow.
Teri-Lisa:
I often say that I moved into an academic role by chance, but that is not quite true. Like many of the participants interviewed in our study exploring the professional trajectories of ‘pracademics’, I made a series of active choices which led me to where I am today. Following graduation, my first employment involved working in career advice and guidance within the public sector. My work was tied to the political policy of the time, which focussed on young people, particularly NEETs.
I valued working with clients, but the way the education and training sector was structured meant that the available opportunities were limited, and potentially limiting. The reduction of advice and guidance support for young people led me into career support within higher education. At this point, the narrative around student employability development had been established, but employability was no longer an ‘extra’ component of the university offer; there was now the expectation that it should be embedded. I successfully applied for an academic role where I was tasked with teaching and assessing students on employability-related and placement modules and supporting the development of this offer within the criminology subject group.
Most of my teaching delivery remains focussed on these elements today and, as I did in my previous roles, I still find opportunities to reflect on my professional values. For instance, we regularly collaborate with organisations working within and alongside the criminal justice sector (CJS). The challenge is to ensure that we maintain good relationships with partner organisations while encouraging critical approaches with students in understanding the inequality which manifests in the CJS.
Some reflections:
Our collective pathways into academia encompassed a ‘traditional’ academic career trajectory, moves from both the private and the public sectors, and different disciplinary backgrounds. Since then, we have each taken on various departmental and/or central institutional roles and continue to work together on projects and engage in collective reflection.
Reflection is not inherently useful. For reflection to be useful, it’s important to consider how to move forward through reconstructing your experiences and enacting change. There is also the consideration of the external environment and the factors which impact on women’s working lives, but which are not directly related to the workplace (such as caring responsibilities). As we continue to work together on projects, we recognise the value that such diversity of academic identities, skills, experience, knowledge and networks can bring. We can advocate for each other.
Particularly given the challenges facing the higher education sector, the uncertainties presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, and concerns about reward, recognition, and progression, we hope that these reflections will encourage others to consider their own professional identities, values and opportunities for continued professional development as they navigate their particular career paths.
with good wishes,
Liz Austen (@lizaustenbooth)
Jill Dickinson (@jill_dickinson1)