Academic Cultures: Psychology of Education Perspective

Monica Mollo

doi:10.1007/s42087-021-00238-7

Abstract

This work contributes to a wider range of research, the main objective of which is to investigate models of thought and behaviour that result from belonging to a given academic culture. The academic culture that will be examined is that within the university system, and this research will look at how this culture can take different forms. According to (Bourdieu, 1984), university professors hold an institutionalised form of cultural capital that places them in a dominant position within a field of power. The university system is immersed in a specific culture, and it expresses a given culture and understanding this culture will allow one to understand the system itself (Anolli, 2014). Cultural models are the result of a process of signification, which is understood as the ability of a group or community to elaborate a shared symbolic dimension around an object or symbol at a given historical moment. The cultural models that underlie the professional context orient social and organizational behaviour, which contributes to the construction, on a symbolic level, of identity.

Highlights

In this paper, we present and discuss the results of our study on the role of model cultures in a group of professors at the University of Salerno (Italy)
Cultural models are the result of a process of signification, which is understood as the ability of a group or community to elaborate a shared symbolic dimension around an object or symbol at a given historical moment (Marsico, 2015, 2018; Savarese et al, 2013)
We will describe the cultural models we identified through an interpretation of the autobiographical narratives operated by the judges

Summary

Introduction

We present and discuss the results of our study on the role of model cultures in a group of professors at the University of Salerno (Italy). The disciplines of psychology, sociology, and anthropology have demonstrated the ways in which the thinking and social relationships that characterise professions are socially and culturally anchored These have been found to reflect certain aspects of social activities and the logic of the context in which these professions take place (Engeström, 1990; Jodelet et al, 1980; Kleinmann, 1975). The role played by the sociocultural dimension in the construction of social identity has been widely documented by developmental psychologists (Gomes et al, 2018; Skinner et al, 2021; Valsiner, 1989; 1998; 2007) These studies have demonstrated how the sociocultural dimension contributes to the determination of work choices, the organisation of work, and, in a complementary way, to shaping the context in which professional activities take place (Gergen, 2001; Marsico, 2015)

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