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Where academics' oscillate , in the field of higher education. Melinda J Lewis (Adjunct Lecturer) PhD Candidate Faculty of Education & Social Work The University of Sydney Melinda.lewis@Sydney.edu.au http://meljlewis.wordpress.com/.
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Where academics' oscillate, in the field of higher education Melinda J Lewis (Adjunct Lecturer) PhD Candidate Faculty of Education & Social Work The University of Sydney Melinda.lewis@Sydney.edu.au http://meljlewis.wordpress.com/
Acknowledge my doctoral supervisors Professor Peter Goodyear & A/Professor Sandra West, the Australian government for an APA scholarship, the University for PRSS travel support & the participants who make up the research. • With thanks: Gabrielle Carey, Creative Writing, UTS Sydney http://gabriellecarey.com.au/ Forever to be known as "the other woman who wrote Puberty Blues", she released So Many Selves, a collection of three essays, each addressing integral turning points in her life > notion of oscillation • http://gabriellecarey.com.au/books#smanyselves The Age 10 Nov 2006 http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-reviews/so-many-selves/2006/11/10/1162661885012.html
Research and teaching relationships in 'health' at Sydney – perspectives from teaching & research-active academics in the Faculty of Pharmacy TODAY – present ‘early’ impressions and anticipatory thinking regarding findings
Threads of my earlier work Together alone with everyone: Academic identity construction and relationships within the practice of insider educational research " (Lewis, AIC Auckland, 2012) drawn from Paul Trowler & others in the field of institutionally-based, HE research, within the context of my academic development work across health disciplines Knowledge, expertise and the professions (Young & Muller, 2014) - liberal & vocationally-oriented teaching known as ‘health professional education’ (West, Lewis & Ward, 2012); Pigeon pecks and mouse clicks & MOOCs and professional learning (Lodge & Lewis, 2012; 2014) Collaboration(s) – eLearning scholarship & multidisciplinary academic writing (Lewis, Scott & Caldwell, 2013; 2014) - beyond tribes
My positioning “Frequently writers and researchers are positioned outside, yet alongside, those others they research and write about, never making clear where they stand in these hyphenated relationships that connect the other to them”(Denzin, the art and politics of interpretation, chapter in Hesse-Baber & Leavy, 2004, p.452) Experienced (once tenured) health-oriented academic whilst also a novice social science researcher in HE, mature-age mid-life doctoral candidate.
The idea of identity: "As sociologist Georg Simmel (1971) argued in a famous essay on 'the stranger,' most of us are reconciled to the fact that our social relationships never feature complete acceptance or immersion. In one sense we are a part of all that happens around us and indeed can only realize our possibilities as persons through the recognition and support that others provide. That set of public recognitions - defining who we are as participants and as persons - is commonly described as our identity. However, we also exist in our own private estimations, understandings that are never entirely equivalent to the ways that others see us. In that second sense, we have - or perhaps are - selves. We maintain our own visions of the world and those perspectives ultimately keep us apart from the settings we inhabit" Henricks (2012, p. 1-2).
The idea of a university: From Humboldt to - “…the university is simultaneously a professional school, a cultural centre and a research institute….these three are united.” (Jaspers, 1959) “If we take research, teaching and public service as broadly stated missions of HE, each becomes over time an elaborate, steadily differentiating set of expectations and tasks.” (Clark, 1993)
Literature • Explored for decades from a variety of perspectives – Healey, Brew, linking, relating, balancing, competing • Critically evaluated by many, calling for reconceptualizations: • Malcolm (2013) suggested that answering earlier questions has still been limited • Locke (2014) disintegration of ‘teaching’, of ‘research’ + ‘teaching and research‘ • Gunn (2014) re-thinking links between research, teaching and educational agendas; focus on researcher orientations
Take a moment to reflect and then take the poll3 quick questionshttp://wp.me/p1rT3a-v9 Do you have a sense you oscillate? Which of the images below best describes your sense of oscillation? In my university / academic context, I...
Context • At Sydney, relating and embedded research and teaching links are seen within policy and strategy: • research-engaged learning & teaching (RELT), • community engaged learning & teaching (CELT), • student enquiry, • curriculum renewal, • academic promotions & • buildings – The Charles Perkins Centre - easing the burden of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease and their related conditions – the leading causes of death, disability and reduced quality of life in Australia – through innovative research and teaching. • “It’s our cathedral to impact and innovation and it is from here that we will change the health of a nation.” - Professor Stephen Simpson • http://sydney.edu.au/perkins/research-education-hub/index.shtml • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBlh0wqAXMQ
After initial fieldwork I am attempting to: 1. MOVE beyondidentity to explore their habitus (Bourdieu, 1977) as depicted by their descriptions in their narratives and telling their stories. Core concepts of ‘habitus’, ‘field’ and ‘capital’ provide one framework. As sensitising concepts they lend meaning to participants’ experiences and provide examples of a ‘theoretical’ thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) Explore their habitus, or dispositions within their academic context, & allude to a sense of movement > oscillations that co-exist (Clegg, 2003; Carey, 2006). 2. MOVE beyond tribes to multi-identities, multiple collaborative disciplinary orientations – can be coherent and/or conflicting 3. MOVE beyond thinking of a nexus > more plural such as a plexus (network of nodes)
REFERENCES Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. New York: Cambridge University Press. Carey, G. (2006). So many selves. Sydney: ABC Books. Grenfell, M., & James, D. (1998). Acts of practical theory: Bourdieu and education. Abingdon, Oxon: RoutledgeFalmer. Henricks, T.S. (2012). Selves, societies & emotions: Understanding the pathways of experience. London, Paradigm Publishers. Lewis, M.J. (2012). Together alone with everyone: Academic identity construction and relationships within the practice of insider educational research. Roundtable presentation at the Academic Identities Conference (AIC): Thinking, Researching and Living Otherwise. Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 25-27 June. http://www.aic.education.auckland.ac.nz/ Narayan, K. (2012). Alive in the writing: Crafting ethnography in the company of Chekhov. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Trowler, P.R. (2013). Practice-focused ethnographies of higher education: Methodological corollaries of a social practice perspective. European Journal of Higher Education (b) Trowler, P. (2013). Depicting and researching disciplines: Strong and moderate essentialist approached. Studies in Higher Education Young, M., & Muller, J. (Eds.). (2014). Knowledge, expertise and the professions. London: Routledge.